RTHK: Britain dodges 'no deal' Brexit - for the moment European leaders agreed with Britain on Thursday to delay Brexit by up to six months, saving the continent from what could have been a chaotic no-deal departure at the end of the week. The deal struck during late night talks in Brussels means that if London remains in the EU after May 22, British voters will have to take part in European elections. Prime Minister Theresa May and the other 27 EU leaders "have agreed a flexible extension until 31 October", European Council president Donald Tusk said in a tweet. "This means additional six months for the UK to find the best possible solution." France's President Emmanuel Macron was the strongest voice opposing a long extension, but most leaders backed it and the French had to settle for a promise that the delay will be reviewed at an EU summit on June 21. Most of the leaders gathered for the emergency summit, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, had backed a plan for Brexit to be postponed for up to a year. But as the talks stretched into Thursday morning, Macron -- with backing from Belgium, Austria and some smaller EU states -- held out for a short delay of only a few weeks and demanded solid guarantees that London would not interfere in EU business during that time. May has already said that if Britain is still an EU member when the European parliamentary election begins on May 23, UK voters will take part. But some EU leaders are unconvinced that she is sincere, despite one official telling reporters her presentation had been "solid". Without a postponement, Britain would have ended its 46-year membership of the EU at midnight on Friday (0600 Saturday HKT) on Friday with no deal, risking economic chaos on both sides of the Channel. May agreed a divorce deal with the EU last November but MPs in London have rejected it three times, forcing her to turn to the main opposition Labour party in a bid to find a way through. But these talks are moving slowly, and the prime minister is under intense pressure from hardline Brexit supporters in her Conservative party not to compromise. As she arrived, May said she wanted to leave the EU "as soon as possible". "I've asked for an extension to June 30 but what is important is that any extension enables us to leave at the point at which we ratify the withdrawal agreement," she said. She said she still hoped to leave the EU on May 22, the last day before Britain must hold European Parliament elections. For as long as Britain is in the EU, it must take part in bloc elections for them to be valid. EU leaders have already agreed one delay to Brexit, from March 29 to April 12, and Tusk has warned there is "little reason to believe" the British parliament can ratify May's deal by June 30. A draft copy of the summit conclusions seen by AFP before the leaders sat down to finalise it said "an extension should last only as long as necessary and, in any event, no longer than [XX.XX.XXXX]." "If the withdrawal agreement is ratified by both parties before this date, the withdrawal will take place on the first day of the following month," the draft stated. EU members want to ensure that a semi-detached Britain does not seek leverage in Brexit talks by intervening in choosing the next head of the European Commission or the next multi-year EU budget. May's ministers have begun cross-party talks with Labour on a compromise to get the withdrawal agreement through the House of Commons. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wants Britain to commit to remaining within the EU customs union, an idea that many in Europe would be keen to accommodate. "We would be generous in negotiating that, understanding that the UK couldn't be a silent partner in such an arrangement -- it would have to have a say in decisions being made," Irish premier Leo Varadkar said as he arrived at the summit. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The Lancet Planetary Health: Traffic-related air pollution associated with 4 million new cases of childhood asthma every year Globally, the estimates suggest that there are 170 new cases of traffic pollution-related asthma per 100,000 children every year, and 13% of childhood asthma cases diagnosed each year are linked to traffic pollution The country with the highest proportion of traffic pollution-attributable childhood asthma incidence was South Korea (31%), the UK ranked 24th out of 194 countries, the US 25th, China 19th, and India 58th Of the 125 cities studied, there was a large variation in the proportion of childhood asthma cases attributable to traffic pollution - from 6% in Orlu, Nigeria, to 48% in Shanghai, China. Of the ten cities with the highest proportion of cases, eight were in China, alongside Moscow, Russia, and Seoul, South Korea Authors suggest that pollution guidelines may need to be re-evaluated, as most children developing traffic pollution-related asthma lived in areas within recommended levels The first global estimates of their kind suggest that more than one in ten childhood asthma cases could be linked to traffic-related air pollution every year, according to a health impact assessment of children in 194 countries and 125 major cities worldwide, published in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. With 92% of cases developing in areas that have traffic pollution levels below the WHO guideline level [1], the authors suggest that this limit may need to be reviewed. "Nitrogen dioxide pollution appears to be a substantial risk factor for childhood asthma incidence in both developed and developing countries, especially in urban areas," says senior author Dr Susan Anenberg, George Washington University, USA. "Our findings suggest that the World Health Organization guideline for annual average NO2 concentrations might need to be revisited, and that traffic emissions should be a target to mitigate exposure." [2] Lead author Ploy Achakulwisut, George Washington University, USA, adds: "Our study indicates that policy initiatives to alleviate traffic-related air pollution can lead to improvements in children's health and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Recent examples include Shenzhen's electrification of its entire bus fleet and London's Ultra-Low Emission Zone congestion charges." [2] Globally, asthma is the most common non-communicable disease among children, and, according to the WHO, prevalence has increased dramatically since the 1950s. The reasons for this are multiple. Traffic-related air pollution may result in asthma development as pollutants may cause damage to the airways, leading to inflammation that triggers asthma in genetically predisposed children. Although it is not yet clear which specific pollutant within the traffic-related air pollution mixture is the source of asthma development, reviews by the US Environmental Protection Agency and Health Canada suggest that a causal relationship is likely to exist between long-term nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposure and childhood asthma development. In the new study, the authors used NO2 as a surrogate for the traffic pollution mixture to focus specifically on the effects of traffic pollution on childhood asthma development. NO2 is a pollutant formed mainly from fossil fuel combustion, and traffic emissions can contribute up to 80% of ambient NO2 in cities. NO2 is just one component of air pollution, which is made up of many pollutants (including particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide), which are known to have numerous adverse effects on health. The authors combined a global dataset of ambient NO2 (modelled from ground-level monitors, satellite data, and land use variables such as road networks) with data on population distribution and asthma incidence to estimate the number of new traffic pollution-related asthma cases in children aged 1-18 years. Globally, the estimates suggest that there are 170 new cases of traffic pollution-related asthma per 100,000 children every year, and 13% of childhood asthma cases diagnosed each year are linked to traffic pollution. The country with the highest rate of traffic pollution-related childhood asthma was Kuwait (550 cases per 100,000 children each year), followed by the United Arab Emirates (460 per 100,000), and Canada (450 per 100,000). Of the 125 cities studied, there was a large variation in the estimated rate of traffic pollution-related childhood asthma - from 83 cases per 100,000 children every year in Orlu, Nigeria, to 690 cases per 100,000 children in Lima, Peru. These rates of traffic pollution-related asthma are influenced by asthma rates overall, as well as pollution levels, and may underestimate true levels in many low- and middle-income countries. This is because asthma cases often go undiagnosed in these regions. The largest number of cases of traffic pollution-related asthma were estimated for China (760,000 cases), which is likely a result of China having the second largest population of children and the third highest concentrations of NO2. Although less than half the size of China's burden, India had the next largest number of cases (350,000) due to its large population of children. The USA (240,000), Indonesia (160,000) and Brazil (140,000) had the next largest burdens, with the USA having the highest pollution levels of these three countries, while Indonesia had the highest underlying asthma rates. The country with the highest percentage of traffic pollution-attributable childhood asthma incidence was South Korea (31%), followed Kuwait (30%), Qatar (30%), United Arab Emirates (30%), and Bahrain (26%). The UK ranked 24th out of 194 countries, the US 25th, China 19th, and India 58th. The authors explain that India ranks below other countries for this metric because, although levels of other pollutants (particularly PM2.5) in India are among the highest in the world, NO2 levels from 2010-2012 in Indian cities appear to be lower than or comparable to levels in European and US cities. Two-thirds of traffic pollution-related asthma cases occurred in urban centres globally, and when suburbs were included this proportion increased to 90% of cases. The percentage of new asthma cases attributable to traffic pollution by city ranged from 6% in Orlu, Nigeria, to 48% in Shanghai, China, and largely reflected the variations in NO2 exposures within each region. Of the ten cities with the highest proportion of traffic pollution-related asthma cases, eight were in China (Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Shenyang, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, and Harbin) alongside Moscow, Russia, and Seoul, South Korea - all of which had high urban NO2 concentrations. Paris ranked 21st (33%), New York ranked 29th (32%), London 35th (29%), and New Delhi 38th (28%). The authors note some limitations, including that studies linking traffic pollution and asthma, and NO2 monitoring data are largely from North America, Europe and east Asia, and NO2 ground-level monitors are mostly in urban areas, so could overestimate pollution levels in rural areas. Due to limited data availability, the NO2 levels used in this study are for 2010-2012, whereas the population and asthma incidence rates are for 2015. Given recent global changes in NO2 levels (decreases in US and European cities, and increases in Asia), the estimates may not be exact and further research with the latest NO2 levels is needed. Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Rajen N Naidoo, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, says: "An important outcome from this study is the further evidence that the existing WHO standards are not protective against childhood asthma. Achakulwisut and colleagues estimated that approximately 92% of the childhood asthma incidence attributable to NO2 exposure was in areas with NO2 concentrations below the values of the WHO annual average guidelines. This strengthens the case for the downward revision of these global standards and for stronger national policy initiatives in countries without air quality standards. Furthermore, these findings not only support the association of NO2 exposure with childhood asthma incidence, but also, because this pollutant serves as an important proxy for broader traffic related air pollutants, highlight that urgent intervention is necessary to protect the health of those most vulnerable in society: children, particularly those with pre-existing respiratory disease." ### Peer-reviewed / Observational and modelling study / People **Country and city-level data available** NOTES TO EDITORS This study was funded by George Washington University. It was conducted by researchers from George Washington University, The University of British Colombia, The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and Oregon State University. The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www. sciencemediacentre. org/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2018/ 01/ AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE. pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com [1] WHO guidelines state that annual average NO2 concentrations should be 40 g/m3 (or 21 parts per billion). [2] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article. IF YOU WISH TO PROVIDE A LINK FOR YOUR READERS, PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING, WHICH WILL GO LIVE AT THE TIME THE EMBARGO LIFTS: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpla/article/PIIS2542-5196(19)30046-4/fulltext This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. From buying all to buying selectively, Chinese consumers become more rational Imported items in a store (Chinanews.com) Instead of buying luxury watches and fancy jewelry in downtown Paris, Wang Wei, a tourist from central Chinas Hubei province, bought oil paintings and an iron pan from a local flea market. Like Wang, many Chinese tourists have shortened their must-buy lists when they travel abroad. The change in shopping habits of Chinese consumers has provided an opportunity for domestic brands to grasp a larger share of the consumer market, banyuetan.org reported on April 10. In the past, Chinese tourists liked to buy luxury products, fancy bags and watches in Germany, but now they prefer to shop at chain and department stores, said Zhang Yuhong, general manager of the China International Travel Service German company. The number of people purchasing luxury brands in Italy has witnessed a noticeable drop this year, according to an Italian tourism company. An average of two million Chinese tourists visit Italy each year, accounting for 30 percent of the countrys duty-free sales. Though Chinese consumers still think foreign products are reliable and trustworthy, their changing shopping habits pose an opportunity for domestic brands. Experts have suggested that domestic manufacturers should strengthen marketing skills, improve services, and pay more attention to detail when developing their products. To enhance the image of domestic brands, industry supervisors should set up a company credit evaluation system under which manufacturers with dishonest behaviors face punishment, said Song Yaoming, minister of the Economic and Commercial Office at the Chinese embassy in Japan. An undated photo of the 77-year-old victim Sandra Aven, provided by the police. (Yavapai County Sheriff's Office) Arizona Family Cashes Checks for Nearly Two Years After Killing Grandmother An Arizona mother and daughter are in police custody after allegedly killing a grandmother in 2017 and continuing to cash her numerous monthly payment checks. Tara Aven, 46, and daughter Briar Aven, 24, were arrested on April 9 on suspicion of having murdered Sandra Aven, AZ Central reported. Sandra Aven was Taras mother and Briars grandmother. The two were also the victims next-door neighbors in Prescott. Welfare Check Police said a Prescott resident contacted them to express concern that he hadnt seen the elderly neighbor in quite some time, AZ Central reported. Authorities performing a welfare check questioned Tara and Briar Aven, who police said gave conflicting accounts. A property search then led police to the discovery of an obviously deceased person. Crime scene tape surrounds two homes in Prescott. Body believed to be 77yo Sandra Aven found today, her daughter and granddaughter (who live next door)are now accused of murdering her, possibly all the way back in 2017. Daughter/granddaughter now in jail @abc15 pic.twitter.com/JF9UQZNern Mike Pelton (@MikePeltonABC15) April 10, 2019 The two suspects in the course of later interrogations allegedly admitted to killing Sandra Aven in 2017. Since the elderly womans murder, her daughter and granddaughter continued to collect rent checks from several properties Sandra Aven owned and rented out, ABC15 reported. Argument Turned Deadly The elderly womans slaying was allegedly prompted by a confrontation with her granddaughter over a fraudulent student loan. The 77-year-old victim, who lived next door to the two women accused of her murder, had been struck in the head at least 20 times with a hammer, ABC15 reported. She was also choked. Her body was hidden in a rug, according to the report, and attempts were made to mask the smell from the decomposing corpse with kitty litter. For Prescott, this is pretty huge. This kind of stuff does not really go down in Prescott, a neighbor said, according to ABC15 Arizona. Tara and Briar were both booked into to the Yavapai County Jail, according to the New York Post. Both women face charges of murder, fraud, and evidence tampering. Facts About Crime in the U.S. Violent crime in the U.S. has fallen sharply over the past 25 years, according to both the FBIs Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The rate of violent crimes fell by 49 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the FBIs UCR, which only reflects crimes reported to the police. The violent crime rate dropped by 74 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the BJSs NCVS, which takes into account both crimes that have been reported to the police and those that have not. From 1993 to 2017, the rate of violent victimization declined 74 percent, from 79.8 to 20.6 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, the U.S. Department of Justice stated. Both studies are based on data up to and including 2017, the most recent year for which complete figures are available. The FBI recently released preliminary data for 2018. According to the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, JanuaryJune 2018, violent crime rates in the United States dropped by 4.3 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2017. While the overall rate of violent crime has seen a steady downward drop since its peak in the 1990s, there have been several upticks that bucked the trend. Between 2014 and 2016, the murder rate increased by more than 20 percent, to 5.4 per 100,000 residents, from 4.4, according to an Epoch Times analysis of FBI data. The last two-year period that the rate soared so quickly was between 1966 and 1968. Property Crime The property crime rate fell by 50 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the FBI, and by 69 percent according to BJS. According to the FBIs preliminary figures for the first half of 2018, property crime rates in the United States dropped by 7.2 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2017. As with violent crime, the FBI survey only takes into account crime reported to the police, while the BJS figures include reported and non-reported crime. Public Perception About Crime Despite falling long-term trends in both violent crime and property crime, opinion surveys repeatedly show Americans believe that crime is up. The vast majority of Gallup polls taken since 1993 show that over 60 percent of Americans believe there is more crime in the United States on a national scale compared to the previous year. Pew Research Surveys show similar findings. A survey in late 2016 revealed that 57 percent of registered voters said crime in the nation as a whole increased since 2008, despite both FBI and BJS data showing double-digit drops in violent and property crimes. Perceptions differed on a national versus local level. Surveys of perceptions of crime levels on a local scale showed that fewer than 50 percent of respondents in every single Gallup survey done since 1996 believed that crime in their area had risen compared to the previous year. Methodology The BJS National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nations primary source of information on criminal victimization. According to the BSJ, data for the NCVS is obtained annually from a nationally representative sample of about 135,000 household interviews, composed of nearly 225,000 interviews of persons within those households, on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. The NCVS collects information on crimes both reported and not reported to police. The FBIs annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is based on crimes reported to police in approximately 18,000 jurisdictions around the country. The UCR Program compiles data from monthly law enforcement reports or individual crime incident records transmitted directly to the FBI or to centralized agencies that then report to the FBI, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In this April 1, 2019 file photo, attorney Michael Avenatti arrives at federal court in Santa Ana, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Attorney Michael Avenatti Indicted on 36 Counts of Embezzlement, Fraud, Tax Evasion High-profile attorney Michael Avenatti is facing a raft of new charges after a federal grand jury indicted him on 36 counts of theft of millions of dollars from clients, bank fraud, tax evasion, and perjury in bankruptcy proceedings. The new charges, announced by federal prosecutors on April 11, follow his arrest last month in New York for allegedly trying to extort Nike for up to $25 million and two similar charges in California. Attorney Michael Avenatti named in federal grand jury indictment that accuses him of stealing millions of dollars from clients https://t.co/126oHyy8mI US Attorney L.A. (@USAO_LosAngeles) April 11, 2019 He could face a maximum sentence of up to 335 years in prison if found guilty of all charges set out in the California indictment. Meanwhile, he also faces up to an additional 47 years in the extortion case relating to the sportswear giant. U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said during a press conference on April 11 that the alleged crimeswhich fall under wire fraud, tax fraud, bank fraud, and bankruptcy fraudwere all linked to one another because money generated from one set of crimes was used to further other crimes, typically in the form of payments designed to string along victims so as to prevent Mr. Avenattis financial house of cards from collapsing. Avenatti, 48, who is best known for representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President Donald Trump, said that he intends to plead not guilty. I look forward to the entire truth being known as opposed to a one-sided version meant to sideline me, he wrote on social media. I intend to fully fight all charges and plead NOT GUILTY. I look forward to the entire truth being known as opposed to a one-sided version meant to sideline me. Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 11, 2019 The 61-page indictment (pdf) was filed late April 10 and detailed how Avenatti failed to meet his tax obligations, stole from his client, and used the money to support his racing team, coffee shops, and a private jet. Lying to Clients According to the indictment, Avenatti embezzled money from five of his clients and shuffled the money to cover up the theft. In one of these cases, Avenatti represented Geoffrey Johnson, a paraplegic on disability, against the County of Los Angeles where a $4 million settlement was reached in 2015. Prosecutors said Avenatti received the settlement but hid it from Johnson and used the money to pay for his coffee business and other personal expenses. Meanwhile, he only gave Johnson periodic advances of no more than $1,900 and paid for his rent. The indictment also stated that Avenatti received $2.75 million in proceeds for settlement but hid that from another client. He then allegedly took $2.5 million from the settlement and used it to purchase a portion of a jet. Federal agents confirmed with Fox News that they had seized a Honda HA-420 twin-engine jetworth $4.5 millionon April 10 after a federal judge issued a warrant. The jet was registered to Passport 420, a company Avenatti co-owns. Tax Evasion and Fraud Avenatti was charged with 19 tax-related offenses including failure to file personal income tax returns since 2010, and other tax returns for two of his law firms. The attorney allegedly tried to obstruct efforts by the IRS to collect at least $2.3 million in taxes withheld from the paychecks of employees of coffee shops he owned. The indictment claimed that he lied to an IRS revenue officer, opened a new bank account to receive funds related to credit card transactions at the coffee shops, and directed employees to deposit cash receipts into a bank account belonging to a car racing outfit that Avenatti owned. Prosecutors also gave examples of Avenattis other alleged fraudulent behavior such as overstating resources of one of his law firms to obtain three loans totaling $4.1 million from a bank and repeatedly lying about income he was receiving during bankruptcy proceedings. Avenatti had denied the accusations in a series of posts on social media on April 11. For 20 years, I have represented Davids vs. Goliaths and relied on due process and our system of justice. Along the way, I have made many powerful enemies. I am entitled to a FULL presumption of innocence and am confident that justice will be done once ALL of the facts are known. For 20 years, I have represented Davids vs. Goliaths and relied on due process and our system of justice. Along the way, I have made many powerful enemies. I am entitled to a FULL presumption of innocence and am confident that justice will be done once ALL of the facts are known. Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 11, 2019 Avenatti is currently free on a $300,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned April 29. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk out of the White House to welcome South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook in Washington on April 11, 2019. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images) Barr Testimony About Spying on Trump Campaign Absolutely True, President Says President Donald Trump on April 11 agreed with the testimony of Attorney General William Barr from the previous day about spying on the Trump campaign. Barr told House lawmakers on April 10 he believes spying on the Trump campaign occurred during the 2016 election. The attorney general said he is looking into the matter in parallel to an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general. I think what he said was absolutely true. There was absolutely spying into my campaign, Trump told reporters at the White House. Ill go a step further. In my opinion, there was illegal spying, unprecedented spying. And something that should never be allowed to happen in our country again. And I think his answer was actually a very accurate one, Trump added. And a lot of people understandmany, many people understandthe situation. And we want to be open to that situation. Hard to believe it could have happened. But it did. There was spying in my campaign, and his answer was a very accurate one. More than two years ago, Trump made the initial claim that his campaign was spied on by the Obama administration. At the time, little evidence was available to back up the presidents claim, but investigations by Republicans in Congress have established that the FBI surveilled at least one Trump campaign associate. Further evidence suggests that Obama officials used at least four other methods to spy on the campaign. Barr told lawmakers he believes spying on a political campaign is a big deal, adding that its important to examine whether the surveillance of the presidents campaign was adequately predicated. The attorney general also revealed that his inquiry scope includes intelligence agencies beyond the FBI. The attorney general also hinted that hes in possession of evidence of spying that is not yet public. I believe there is a basis for my concern, but Im not going to discuss the basis, Barr told lawmakers. Barr is the first DOJ official to acknowledge that the Trump campaign was the target of a spying operation. Considering his position as the nations top prosecutor, the testimony marks a major turning point for both the publics perception of the matter and the legal consequences for those involved. To date, the disclosures about the surveillance of the Trump campaign have largely emanated from political sources, namely Republicans in Congress and Trump himself. As a result, establishment media has dismissed the accusations as political attacks and treated the claims as a conspiracy theory. With the affirmation from the top DOJ official, under oath and before Congress, the evidence will be more difficult to dismiss. Republican-led investigations in Congress have already established, through documentary evidence and witness testimony, that the process to obtain a warrant to surveil former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page was riddled with abnormalities. The warrant application omitted the fact that the core of the evidence against Page came from a dossier funded by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The FBI was also aware, but did not disclose, that the dossiers author, former British spy Christopher Steele, was biased against Trump. Carter Page was targeted as part of a counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign launched by FBI special agent Peter Strzok in late July 2016. It has since been revealed that Strzok, like Steele, was biased against Trump. In text messages to FBI attorney Lisa Page, Strzok expressed hatred toward Trump, predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the election by a landslide, discussed stopping Trump from becoming president, mentioned an insurance policy in the unlikely event Trump won the election, and mused about impeachment after Trumps victory. While Strzok and others at the FBI ran the legwork of the investigation, the key players operated at the top tiers of government hierarchy. FBI Director James Comey, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Sen. John McCain, CIA Director John Brennan, and senior DOJ official Bruce Ohr, among others, played significant roles in the broader alleged operation collectively referred to as Spygate. This is not launching an investigation of the FBI, Barr said on April 10. To the extent there were any issues at the FBI, I do not view it as a problem thats endemic to the FBI. I think there was probably a failure among a group of leaders there at the upper echelons. Bill Barr Just Let Us Know the Hunters Are About to Become the Hunted Commentary The news just keeps getting worse for the Russiagaters. Those responsible for the two-and-a-half year witch hunt against the President of the United States must now realize theyre about to be put under the microscope themselves. The hunters are about to become the hunted. After the complete collapse of their Russia collusion conspiracy theory, Jerry Nadler, Adam Schiff, and the army of true believers in the media are grasping at straws. To keep the hoax alive after Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation completely debunked it, theyve had to invent a new cover up theory, implying that Barr is lying to them and that the Mueller Report actually has the dirt they had promised Americans for over two years. Desperate for new soundbites to prop up this pathetic hedge, Senate Democrats turned a committee hearing that was supposed to be about the Justice Departments budget requests into a kangaroo court to attack Barr. That was foolish of them, because Barr is a consummate attorney who saw this coming a mile away. He easily kept his poise, deftly defusing their attempts to make him look like he has something to hide simply because hes committed to upholding the requirements and fundamental traditions of our justice system by redacting grand jury material and derogatory information about people not charged with crimes when he provides the Mueller Report to Congress. Barr wasnt done ruining the Democrats week, though. The day after he refuted their conspiracy theory about a cover up, Barr demolished another of the Democrats central talking points by revealing that he believes that the Obama administration really did spy on the Trump campaign. I think spying did occur, Barr told the senators, his words blowing another massive hole in the Democrats carefully-crafted messaging edifice. For nearly as long as the Democrats have been telling us that Trump colluded with Russians to steal the 2016 election, theyve also been telling us that the president and his supporters were delusional for believing that the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies improperly surveilled the Trump Campaign. Well, well soon see who was deluding whom, because Barr is going to be reviewing both the genesis and the conduct of intelligence activities directed at the Trump campaign during 2016. Authorized surveillance, they called it, but spying is what it actually was. As Barr testified on Tuesday, the investigatory team is already being assembled, and we now know that hes prepared to go as deepor as high upas he needs to go in order to get to the bottom of FBI-informant Stefan Halpers attempts to infiltrate the Trump campaign, the FISA wiretap warrants against Trump associate Carter Page, and the other suspicious spying activities that led to Russiagate. I think there was probably a failure among a group of leaders there at the upper echelon, Barr said of the FBI, and he also signaled a willingness to look into intelligence agencies more broadly. If I were John Brennan, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce Orr, Andy McCabe, or any of the other Obama administration officials involved in the counterintelligence spying that fueled the discredited Russia collusion conspiracy theory, Id lawyer-up, because this will be intense for the snake-oil merchants who brought disgrace to the most revered investigative and law enforcement agencies in the world. The hunters are about to become the hunted, and no amount of sympathy from Democratic politicians and media talking heads will save them from the wrath of the American people theyve been lying to for the past two and half years. Joseph DiGenova is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1983 to 1988. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, built for American Airlines, left, and Air Canada are parked at the airport adjacent to a Boeing Co. production facility in Renton, Wash. on April 8, 2019. (Elaine Thompson/File photo via AP) Boeing Orders and Deliveries Tumble as Max Jet Is Grounded DALLASBoeing failed to win any orders for its 737 Max airliner in March as scrutiny of the plane increased following a second deadly crash in less than five months. Deliveries of finished Max jets also tumbled, to 11 from 26 in February. That was not surprisingBoeing suspended deliveries in mid-March after regulators around the world ordered the plane grounded. Boeings report Tuesday on orders and deliveries came just three days after the company announced that it will cut production of 737s from 52 a month to 42. Meanwhile, airlines that own the nearly 400 grounded Max jets are canceling flights. The damage to Boeing could be temporary, however, if the company can complete a fix to key software on the Max and reassure regulators and passengers that it is a safe plane. Many analysts believe the deliveries will only be delayed, not lost forever, unless airlines cancel orders for the plane. The figures on March orders and deliveries are secondary to getting the Max fix approved and its grounding lifted, Cowen aircraft analyst Cai von Rumohr said. The plane was grounded when an Ethiopian Airlines Max crashed March 10, less than five months after a Lion Air Max plunged into the sea off the coast of Indonesia. In all, 346 people died. Boeing has acknowledged that in each crash, a faulty sensor triggered an anti-stall system when it wasnt needed, pushing the planes nose down. Pilots on each flight fought unsuccessfully to regain control, according to flight data retrieved from the planes. The company is still working on the software update, which was delayed recently by several weeks because of the discovery of a second software problem. Boeing hasnt described the second issue but says it is not related to the anti-stall system. So far, most of Wall Street and Boeings airline customers have publicly stood behind the company during its crisis. Boeing hasnt disclosed any lost orders, although Garuda Indonesia has said it will cancel an order for 49 Max jets. Boeing has a backlog of about 4,600 orders for the plane. Delta Air Lines neither owns nor has any orders for the Maxmost of its pending orders are with Boeings rival, Airbus. But Delta CEO Ed Bastian said he remains confident in Boeings technological prowess and is interested if Boeing decides to build a new plane bigger than the 737. I am confident that Boeing will solve this issue with the Max, he said. I expect that to be a hiccup. Airlines that own the Max, however, are paying a price. On Tuesday, American Airlines cut a key revenue estimate after canceling 1,200 flights in the first quarter due to the grounding of its 24 Max jets. American, the worlds biggest airline, said that it cant predict the future financial fallout until it knows how long the jets will be parked and the circumstances under which they will be allowed to fly again. Over the weekend, American removed the plane from its schedule for an additional six weeks, through June 5. Shares of Chicago-based Boeing fell $5.48, or 1.5%, to close at $369.04. They have lost 13% since the Ethiopian crash. By David Koenig An anti-fentanyl advertisement is seen on a sidewalk in downtown Vancouver in this file photo. New government figures show that between January 2016 and September 2018, more than 10,300 Canadians died from apparent opioid overdoses, with men the most likely victims and fentanyl the primary culprit. (The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward) Canada Struggles in Uphill Battle Against Money Laundering, Fentanyl Crisis Unlikely that China is sincerely motivated to crack down on opioid trade, says criminal lawyer NEWS ANALYSIS A heavy human cost from Canadas inability to contain money laundering is the fentanyl opioid crisis, which resulted in 2,400 deaths in the first nine months of 2018 alone, based on data released April 10 by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The battleground is in British Columbiaa haven for money laundering, especially from Chinawhere police forces are ill equipped to shut down wealthy, sophisticated criminals. Much recent media coverage suggests Canadas problem in dealing with money laundering is less about a lack of laws or regulations; instead, it has more to do with a shortage of experienced crime-fighting resources, B.C. politicians not acting decisively, and the challenges in prosecuting the crime. Other issues of a more philosophical or ideological nature are balancing privacy protection in a democratic society, the regulatory burden on companies, and impacts on the pricing of financial services, all while taking steps to curb abuses of anonymity. Making matters worse, according to U.S. officials and media reports, is Chinas lack of cooperation with international law enforcement. China is the primary source of illicit fentanyl in North America. In the context of the fentanyl crisis and related problems, China appears not to be motivated to assist the United States, Canada, and the Western world in any material respect, said David Harris, a veteran lawyer involved in criminal and national security issues, in an interview. Given some of Chinas precedents like intellectual property theft and unwarranted military expansion, Beijings charm offensive aimed at convincing the United States and Canada that it is prepared to take a constructive approach to stem the fentanyl crisis is unhelpful in the extreme, says Harris. Inadequate Law Enforcement But Canada has its own basic issues in enforcing its laws and, as such, is being criticized by the United States. There are currently no federal [RCMP] resources in B.C. dedicated to criminal money-laundering investigations. This is particularly alarming when one considers that the issue of money laundering has been front-page news in B.C. for almost two years, according to Peter German, a former RCMP deputy commissioner, in a partial release of his money-laundering report on April 8. B.C. attorney general David Eby said the report was a startling and troubling piece of information. The federal budget earmarked $68.9 million over five years for the RCMP to fight money laundering, but RCMP Cpl. Caroline Duval told The Epoch Times that, as of April 10, it had no information to share on how these funds would be allocated specifically. Eby requested that the feds immediately send the funds to B.C. The U.S. Department of States March 2019 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, in a volume focusing on money laundering, said the Canadian government should take steps to increase enforcement and prosecution. It added, When the magnitude of the identified money laundering risks are taken into account, Canadas money-laundering conviction rate appears to be low; from 20102014 [most recent data available], only 169 trials on charges of money laundering led to a conviction. Chinese Cooperation Improbable Just prior to the marked deterioration of relations between Canada and China following the arrest in Vancouver of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou last December, Global News reported that Canadian police were getting frustrated with the lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities on the fentanyl crisis. A policing expert previously told Global News that criminal gangs in China are able to thrive because the communist regime, military, and police forces have looked the other way. An unknown proportion of Chinese-made fentanyl is produced in state-regulated factories. Harris says, given that China is a totalitarian police state, it is prepared to spy on everyone and everything, making it improbable that the Chinese security authorities and their masters would not be fully aware of what is transpiring on the fentanyl front. He adds that the communist regime is essentially condoning the catastrophe in North America. But official channels give the impression that progress is being made between Canada and China. RCMP works closely with Chinese authorities to investigate and disrupt the illegal export of fentanyl to Canada, said Duval, adding that they continue to exchange information and investigate leads. Further doubt can be tacked on Canadas ability to stem the flow of fentanyl from China when considering the U.S.s frustration. U.S. officials are reacting with skepticism to Chinas latest attempt to reassure the world it is doing its part to crack down on fentanyl. According to an announcement by Chinese authorities on April 1, all fentanyl-related substances will be included on Chinas list of controlled substances as of May 1. This action means nothing without proper enforcement, U.S. congressman Chris Smith said in a statement. Chinese-produced fentanyl has been trafficked into the U.S. and is killing Americans, and China has had the capability to crack down on this drug trade and has not done so. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that fentanyl killed more than 71,500 Americans in 2017. Smiths stance is vindicated by Chinas Narcotic Control Commission deputy director Liu Yuejins denial of culpability for the U.S. fentanyl crisis. Liu put the onus on the United States to provide evidence for its accusations and to improve its own enforcement. Smith previously told The Epoch Times of the sinister nature behind the Chinese communist regimes use of fentanyl, describing it as a weapon in an asymmetric warfare campaign and being part of long-term strategic objectives. The U.S. Department of State also reports of significant shortcomings in Chinas implementation of anti-money laundering (AML) laws, especially in the context of international cooperation. U.S. agencies consistently seek to expand cooperation with Chinese counterparts on AML matters; however, they note China has not cooperated sufficiently on financial investigations and does not provide adequate responses to requests for information, according to the report. Different Approaches Ill-begotten money has to enter the banking system to appear clean. Media reports note that over $2 billion in sales of fentanyl has been laundered through B.C. casinos or real estate from 2013 to 2017. In the case of real estate, with a loan from a Chinese underground bank and proceeds from fentanyl sales, a drug dealer can make payments on a mortgage from a Canadian bank. Then once the property is sold, all the money is in the Canadian banking system washed clean. The real estate lawyer for the home purchase doesnt need to reveal the identity of the buyer. Money laundering is difficult to prosecute for a number of reasons, none the least of which is the international nature of the crime. Dealing with shell companies and underground banks in opaque countries like China is difficult, time-consuming, and requires special training. Varying opinions exist on how Canada should deal with the problem. Denis Meunier from the C.D. Howe Institute suggests creating a central corporate registry that contains the true ownership of corporations. The registry should be a one-stop, public search tool. However, Fergus Hodgson of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy disagrees, arguing that more laws and regulations are not the answer and that people may have legitimate reasons for concealing their identities. Unless you want a surveillance state, there is little one can do, Hodgson said about situations like property owners who can hide their identities by arranging for family members to hold titles, holding companies where the sole director is an intermediary like a lawyer, and offshore companies and trusts in tax havens that do not share information about company ownership. Hodgson urges B.C. to get its house in order: The answer is not more laws and regulations, which result in delays and higher prices for services. There is room for improvement before we make law-abiding citizens lives more difficult. The province can also utilize the great deal of information already at its disposal but which has been sitting idle, he wrote in an op-ed. Harris says a public registry of owners could be useful, assuming other lawful means of ensuring appropriate disclosure have already been exhausted. B.C.s provincial government under Christie Clark has been roundly criticized for its anemic attempts at cracking down on money laundering. Its almost a conflict of interest of sorts, as government coffers benefit from the province attracting moneydirty as some of it may be. The propensity of money on the scale of which were dealing, especially in British Columbia can quickly translate itself into political and community power and influence, Harris said. A confluence of factors has made the toll from the fentanyl crisis in Canada and the United States reach catastrophic proportions. Questionable cooperation from China and a lack of coordination and resources make the outlook appear bleak in Canada for the time being. Follow Rahul on Twitter @RV_ETBiz Chinese J-15 fighter jets are launched from the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills in the Yellow Sea, off China's east coast on Dec. 23, 2016. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) China Building First Floating Nuclear Power Station in Yellow Sea China plans to build its first-ever floating nuclear power station in the Yellow Sea this year, and has announced plans to build about 20 more in the near future if the first one succeeds. This news has raised eyebrows in South Korea, located just across the Yellow Sea from China. Offshore Nuclear Power Station Chinas state-run broadcaster CCTV published a report on March 12 that China will begin construction this year on its first floating nuclear power station in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Yantai City, Shandong Province. The report quoted Luo Qi, director of the Nuclear Power Institute of China, the research and development arm of the state-owned China National Nuclear Corp., who said that the station will use ACP100S small nuclear power reactors, a system exclusively developed by the institute. The project will cost 14 billion yuan ($2.08 billion), and is set to be ready for operation in 2021. The state-run Global Times military magazine reported on May 3, 2018, that floating nuclear power stations also have military applications. The report said the station can act as a non-sinking nuclear aircraft carrier for island bases, since its generated power can keep military equipment running for long periods of time. A floating nuclear power station can guarantee that military equipment on an island, including radar, fighter jets, air defense missiles, and anti-ship missiles, work continually, according to the report. Meanwhile, a January 2016 report by the state-run China Securities Journal noted that floating nuclear power stations can also meet the energy demands of offshore oil production at the Bohai Sea, a gulf located within the Yellow Sea. To provide power for such oil production, Chinas state-owned shipbuilder plans to cooperate with the China National Nuclear Corporation to build 20 floating stations, the report noted. In a November 2018 report, state-run China Business Network quoted Ye Qizhen, a notable nuclear power expert, who said the ACP100S can generate electricity and perform seawater desalination, which can provide power and water to staff working on an offshore oil platform. South Korean Concern Because the Yellow Sea is located between China and the Korean peninsula, any nuclear leak would pollute the nearby seawater and land. South Korean media outlet News Pulse reported on March 22 that some South Koreans voiced concern that any offshore nuclear accident would wreak havoc on Korea. A February 2016 blog post by the U.S.-based Singularity University explained that a tsunami or earthquake may cause a nuclear leak, leading to radiation pollution. The Chinese regime has embraced nuclear power in spite of some countries concerns about nuclear accidents. According to the China Nuclear Energy Association, the country currently has 44 operating nuclear power plant units on land, with plans to build about 100 more by the end of 2020. So far, Russia is the only country in the world that has a floating nuclear power station, named the Akademik Lomonosov. The station has two reactors, and is planned for formal operation this summer, according to Bellona, a Europe-based environmental nonprofit. China, Russia Pose Grave National Security Threats to Canada, Parliamentary Report Says Parliamentary watchdog warns of active spying and foreign influence China and Russia are among a handful of states conducting espionage and foreign influence activities in Canada, the parliamentary watchdog overseeing national security and intelligence activities says in its annual report. China is known globally for its efforts to influence Chinese communities and the politics of other countries, says the report, published April 9 by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. The committees members, consisting of multi-party MPs and senators with the highest level of security clearance, file annual reports along with special reports based on reviews of classified documents and meetings with various governmental and intelligence departments. The report points to a number of examples involving cases of Russian espionage in Canada. These include Russian operatives discovered in Canada over the past decades who were sent back to Russia, as well as expelled Russian diplomats known to have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canadas security or interfere in our democracy. When it comes to China, the committee says the Chinese regime uses a number of official organizationschief among them the United Front Work Departmentto try to influence both Chinese communities in Canada and Canadian politicians so that they adopt pro-China positions. The report points to comments made in 2010 by Richard Fadden, then-leader of the Canadian Intelligence Security Service, who raised concerns about Chinese influence activities against Canadian politicians. Fadden had expressed that two provincial cabinet ministers were under the influence of a foreign regime. The Globe and Mail later revealed that one of those politicians was then-Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan. The report also makes a reference to remarks by Canadas former ambassador to China David Mulroney, who said Beijing uses Chinese diaspora groups and mobilizes Chinese students to influence Canadian politics. Another concern raised by the report is the political donations made by wealthy Chinese businessmen in Canada who have close connections with the Chinese Communist Party. Similar issues have been raised in countries with large Chinese diaspora populations, the report reads. Media and academic reports point to Chinas efforts in Australia and New Zealand to influence government policies, including through significant political donations, covertly supporting community groups and demonstrations, and influencing Chinese-language media. The report adds that Chinese security officials have been caught in foreign countries trying to force Chinese fugitives to return to China. Cyber Threats Another national security concern identified by the committee is cyber threats. The report cites a study by Canadas cybersecurity agency Communications Security Establishment, which said that foreign countries are constantly making efforts to gain access to government networks in Canada. Russia and China are among the most active state actors, the report says. In 2014, a Chinese state-sponsored actor infiltrated the National Research Council (NRC) computer networks, causing significant costs for cleanup and remediation, it says. According to a Globe and Mail article, federal documents show that Chinas state-sponsored cyberattack on NRC cost Canada hundreds of millions of dollars. Visitors look at artificial-Intelligence security cameras using facial recognition technology at the 14th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing on Oct. 24, 2018. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images) Chinese Authorities Require Surveillance Cameras to Be Installed Inside Rental Housing In China, the Orwellian fear of a big brother state is becoming a reality, as citizens in rental properties are complaining about police demands to install surveillance cameras in their living rooms. Ever since the surveillance cameras have been installed, I have to dress neatly, even when Im at home, an unidentified male tenant living in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Chinas Zhejiang Province, told a reporter with the online magazine Bitter Winter. It also feels strange when my wife and I want to have a private conversation, he said. After returning home, were still being monitored at all times, as if we are in a prison. This is unrelated to preventing theft; this is close-up surveillance! He was told by his landlord that local police are conducting random inspections, and any that landlord who fails to install a surveillance camera inside a rental property would be fined 500 yuan (about $74). Mandated Cameras in Zhejiang, Fujian This isnt an isolated incident. Several Hangzhou residents told Bitter Winter that local police have been ordering landlords to install the cameras at rental properties since November last year. The police explanation is to guard against theft. Another unnamed Hangzhou resident, while seeking out a rental home, said he saw police notices posted at the entrance to several rental management centers, which are government offices that assist people in their rental search, among other services. The notice read: Surveillance cameras must be installed before the landlord registers their rental property. Each living room must have a surveillance camera that faces the main entrance to the property. An unidentified female tenant in Hangzhou told Bitter Winter that she moved out of a rental home five months earlier because she couldnt live with the idea of a surveillance camera in her home. But it appears she cant avoid the requirement at her new rental home in Hangzhou either, she said. The woman said that the surveillance system in her gated residential community was being upgraded: Now, all residents must pass through facial-recognition checkpoints before being allowed to enter. Security personnel at the womans residential community said that the installation was ordered by local authorities, as part of a project called building intelligent communities. At another Hangzhou residential complex with more than 1,000 units, about one-third of apartments are already outfitted with surveillance cameras, according to a security guard employed there who spoke with Bitter Winter. In Fujian Province, which neighbors Zhejiang, local police are enforcing a policy that surveillance devices be set up on top of door locks of some rental properties, according to Bitter Winter. Workers who were assigned to install the devices told the magazine that local authorities seek to use them to monitor who is leaving and entering the properties. One unnamed landlord in Fujian said she had to pay 1,500 yuan (about $223) to install the surveillance devicesif not, the police station will give you lots of trouble, she said, according to Bitter Winter. Intelligent Communities Beginning in the early 2010s, the concept of intelligent communities became a topic of discussion within regional Chinese governments. The idea was part of the broader smart city: Beijings plan to incorporate high-tech infrastructure, including artificial intelligence (AI), into the countrys metropolisesmostly for surveillance purposes. In 2013, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a white paper outlining Beijings agenda for Chinese smart cities. Several years later, in July 2017, the State Council issued a set of new AI development guidelines to both provincial and municipal governments, calling for residential communities to install AI-based security systems in the name of public safety. Since then, different regional governments have issued policies to comply with the mandate. In October 2018, for example, the provincial government of Hubei Province issued technical requirements for residential properties, including facial-recognition systems installed at the entrances, as well as intelligent door locks with internet connection capabilityto ensure that only tenants have access to the property. It specifically stated that neither landlords nor tenants can voluntarily change the settings on the locks. Data collected by these intelligent community security systemsincluding residents names, ID numbers, gender, family members, marital status, and registered vehiclesare then required to be uploaded onto a cloud platform set up by the local police. The Hubei government called such guidelines an extension of Chinas Xueliang Project. Beijing first proposed the Xueliang, or Sharp Eyes Project (xueliang literally translates to bright as snow) in 2008, as a rural counterpart to its previously announced plan to blanket urban areas with more than 20 million surveillance cameras. Critics have pointed out that these surveillance systems could be used by Beijing to track political targets, or crack down on dissidents who are critical of the Chinese regime. [The surveillance camera system] is a huge network aimed at controlling peoples behavior on the streets, Hu Jia, a Chinese dissident who lives in Beijing, told nonprofit broadcaster Radio Free Asia in a 2015 interview. Earlier this year, a Dutch cyber expert discovered that SenseNets Technology, a Shenzhen-based tech company that develops facial-recognition software, was tracking the movements of residents in Xinjiang, home to many Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities, through its surveillance camera system. Louisa Greve, director of external affairs at the Washington-based advocacy group Uyghur Human Rights Project, described the discovery as proof of the breathtaking scale, and the governments use, of the Uyghur homeland as a laboratory of repression. In December 2017, Li Xuewen, a dissident writer, said surveillance cameras installed at a Guangzhou City metro station detected his movements and alerted police to his presence. Police approached him and said that he was on the Ministry of Public Securitys wanted list for gathering a crowd to disrupt social order. He was then taken to a local detention center. Women and men pick up bricks from a collapsed house to build another structure in Beira, Mozambique, on March, 31, 2019. (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/Photo via AP) Cyclone Idais Death Toll Now Above 1,000 in Southern Africa HARARE, ZimbabweThe death toll from the cyclone that ripped into southern Africa last month is now above 1,000, while the number of cholera cases among survivors has risen above 4,000. The United Nations has described Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi nearly a month ago, as one of the deadliest storms on record in the southern hemisphere. Zimbabwes information minister on Tuesday, April 9, said the death toll in that country has risen to 344. Mozambique has reported 602 deaths and Malawi at least 59. Zimbabwes efforts are now confined to recovery of the deceased and the government will send pathologists to Mozambique to help identify bodies, said Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa. An unknown number of Zimbabweans were washed down mountainsides into Mozambique, which also has turned from search and recovery efforts to relief work providing food and shelter to survivors. Zimbabwe, whose economy is badly struggling, said it needs $612 million to assist survivors and has appealed for international support. A final death toll is yet to be established and might never be known. A cholera outbreak among survivors was declared in Mozambique on March 27 and had led to 4,072 cases and seven deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to government figures. Most of the cases of the acute diarrheal disease have been in Mozambiques hard-hit port city of Beira, where running water recently was restored. The system, however, reaches just 60% of the population of roughly 500,000. More than 745,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine have been distributed since the vaccination campaign launched last week, the government said. Cholera is spread via contaminated water or food and can kill within hours if untreated. Treatment is relatively easy with rehydration and antibiotics. Now malaria is a growing concern as floodwaters continue to recede in parts of the sodden region. More than 7,500 cases of the mosquito-borne disease have been reported, the government said. By Farai Mutsaka Associated Press writer Cara Anna contributed to this report. A Japan Air Self-Defense Force's F-35A stealth fighter jet, which Kyodo says is the same plane that crashed during an exercise on April 9, 2019, is seen at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Komaki Minami factory in Toyoyama, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, in June 2017. (Kyodo/Reuters) Daunting Salvage Task Awaits Japanese F-35 Investigators Baffled by Crash TOKYOTwo days after one of Japans F-35 stealth fighters plunged into the Pacific and no closer to finding out why it happened, investigators face a daunting task to recover what remains of the highly classified jet from the ocean depths. Air Self Defense Force (ASDF) investigators have found small sections of the F-35s wing floating in the sea which suggests the advanced aircraft hit the water, but not why it disappeared from radar screens without warning. We have not recovered anything that would point to a cause, an air force official told Reuters as the search continues for the missing pilot. The remaining wreckage of the $126 million fighter lies at a depth of around 4922 feet (1,500 meters), including the flight data recorder which would shed light on what happened off the coast of northern Japan on the evening of April 10. Twenty-eight minutes after taking off with three other F-35s from Misawa air base in Aomori prefecture on a night training flight, the jet vanished from military radar at about 7:27 p.m., the ASDF said. The normally stealthy Lockheed Martin jet is fitted with a transponder that pings its position and can be configured to light up on radar scopes during training flights, the air force official said. Radar operators tracking the jet received a training abort message from the lost aircraft before it disappeared about 84 miles (135 km) east of the base. There was no communication from the pilot indicating a problem with the aircraft. The plane was not on a low-level practice run, suggesting the veteran pilot with 3,200 hours of flying time but only 60 hours in the F-35, should have had time to react to an emergency, the air force official said. Deep Water The military may have to hire marine salvage firms with submersible craft able to recover wreckage from deep water. The candidates include Japans two biggest marine salvage firms. Fukuda Salvage and Marine Works got its start a century ago recovering damaged warships during the Russo-Japanese war, while Nippon Salvage shares its corporate roots with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the company that assembled the lost F-35. The time needed to complete salvage operations depends on a lot of factors and its impossible to say how long it would take to recover the F-35, a Fukuda Salvage official said, adding it would take more than a few days. The condition of the single-engine fighter, part of a 12 plane squadron that just became operational, will probably be the biggest factor in planning a salvage operation, an engineer at Nippon Salvage told Reuters. Intact it could be pulled up by a crane, but if its broken up then submersibles would have to collect the fragments, he said. The question is whether you want to collect all the pieces. Before that can start, however, Japans defense force has to find the wreckage of the highly-classified piece of U.S. military equipment. Reporting by Tim Kelly Firefighters and emergency officials respond to an explosion and fire in downtown Durham, North Carolina, on April 10, 2019. (WTVD-TV ABC 11 via AP) Durham Businessman Killed in North Carolina Gas Explosion A North Carolina community is mourning the loss of a well-connected businessman after a gas explosion rocked the city. Durham Police Department has identified Kong Lee, 61, as the only confirmed death from the April 10 blast that destroyed an entire building in downtown Durham, 143 miles northeast of Charlotte. Lee owned the Kaffeinate coffee shop, which was at the epicenter of the explosion that has been traced back to a contractor drilling under a sidewalk. The work breached a 2-inch gas line, triggering a gas leak, according to a police statement. However, the exact cause of the blast is still under investigation. Durham Fire Chief Robert Zoldos described the ruins as an unpleasant reminder of what the Pentagon looked like on 9/11. The gas explosion hospitalized 17 people, with six in critical condition. According to the city, 11 people were transported to Duke University Medical Center and a further four to Duke Regional Hospital. Among the injured was a Dominion Energy employee and also Durham firefighter Darren Wheeler who had surgery and is now recovering. Update on @durhamcityfire firefighter injured in todays #DurhamExplosion. Our thoughts are with Firefighter Darren Wheeler as he recovers from his injuries. #publicservice #bullcitystrong https://t.co/1X37zSCa5z CityofDurhamNC (@CityofDurhamNC) April 10, 2019 Durham County Emergency Medical Services Assistant Chief Lee Van Vleet confirmed the injuries were sustained after the building partially collapsed and set on fire. Professional Firefighters of Durham (PFD) announced on social media their colleague was in good spirits. Our brother is out of the operating room and doing well. Keep the prayers coming for a quick and full recovery, thank you all, PFD wrote in a Facebook post on April 10. In true firefighter fashion, our brother is cutting up and in good spirits. Our brother is out of the operating room and doing well. Keep the prayers coming for a quick and full recovery! Thank you all. Posted by Professional Firefighters of Durham on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 In true firefighter fashion, our brother is cutting up and in good spirits! The other members of E1 and some of L3 are being checked out as protocol but doing well. Posted by Professional Firefighters of Durham on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 Police asked the public to stay away from the area due to safety concerns and that affected residents would receive temporary accommodation. West Village-Toms Building is not habitable at this time. Residents who need a place to stay can visit Dominion Energys Claims Operations Center located at Mavericks Smokehouse and Taproom (900 W. Main Street) to get a hotel voucher, Police Public Affairs Manager Wil Glenn wrote on Twitter. The claims center will be open until 11 p.m. It will reopen at 8 a.m. on April 11. Also, Gregson Street has been reopened. West Village Apartments: Toms Building is not habitable for tonight. If you need somewhere to stay please visit PSNCs assistance center located at @MavericksOnMain to get a hotel voucher. pic.twitter.com/NUTRcvk3fr Durham EM (@AlertDurham) April 10, 2019 Heres the latest update from @DurhamPoliceNC on todays #DurhamExplosion. Our thoughts are with the Lee Family during this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/qLuDYyjGue CityofDurhamNC (@CityofDurhamNC) April 11, 2019 . @DurhamPoliceNC has opened a phone line to answer questions or concerns regarding the incident today. Please call (919) 560-4427 ext 29600 and not 911 (unless it is an emergency and unrelated) pic.twitter.com/70gQYOxguQ Durham EM (@AlertDurham) April 11, 2019 Staff and students at the nearby Durham School of the Arts were temporarily evacuated after the explosion. Classes were dismissed for April 10. According to the schools website there are an estimated 1,700 students in grades 6 through 12 and more than 135 teachers and counselors. Police cars blocked the streets in several directions from the explosion, a thick smoked loomed over a shopping district, and helicopters circled overhead. Witness Donna Hester told WRAL-TV the morning explosion sounded like a bomb, reported The Associated Press. Another witness, Kelly Andrus, thought the tremor was from an earthquake at first, but when she looked outside her workplace, she realized it was the West Village-Toms Building from which deep, black smoke was billowing. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ASML Holding logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on Jan. 23, 2019. (Eva Plevier/Reuters) Dutch Chipmaker Had Trade Secrets Stolen by Chinese Employees Dutch chipmaker ASML had its trade secrets stolen by employees who passed them onto its Chinese competitor XTAL Inc., a company with links to the Chinese regime, according to an April 11 report by Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad (FD). The theft, which occurred in 2015 and has been confirmed by ASML, was the subject of a California court case, which resulted in XTAL being ordered to pay $223 million in damages to ASML in late 2018. XTAL filed for bankruptcy shortly afterward. ASML is the leading maker of lithography systems, used to trace the circularity of semiconductor chips. Such chips are used to power nearly every electronic device. According to FD, the theft was orchestrated by XTAL and committed by high-level research and development employees at ASMLs Silicon Valley software subsidiary. The employees transferred source code, software, and pricing strategies onto thumb drives and passed them on to XTAL. Court documents showed that six former employees were involved, all of whom had Chinese names. With the stolen knowledge, XTAL, FD reported, was able to poach large clients from ASML, including South Korean electronics giant Samsung. FD reported that XTAL, which makes electrical design automation for semiconductor systems, is a subsidiary of the China-based Dongfang Jingyuan, which has links to Chinas Ministry of Science and Technology. Meanwhile, Dongfang Jingyuan receives state support to bolster Chinas domestic chipmaking industry, according to a confidential company report obtained by FD. The Dutch company, however, has denied links between the theft and the Chinese regime, saying in a statement that some of the individuals [involved] happened to be Chinese nationals. The company also said that XTALs funding came from South Korea and China, and that the theft aimed to create a competing product and sell it to an existing ASML customer in South Korea. It added that the company has since taken action to guard against this kind of intellectual property theft. ASML confirmed that it was awarded $223 million in damages in 2018, but added that it was unclear how much could be recovered from the now bankrupt XTAL. AIVD, Hollands chief intelligence agency, has included warnings against Chinas cyberattacks targeting Dutch tech companies in its annual threat assessments for the past several years. Asked for its response on the ASML case, an intelligence agency representative said they could not comment on individual cases. In a broader sense, the greatest threat of economic espionage comes from China, the representative said in an email to Reuters. The Netherlands is an attractive target, other countries are interested in our information in science and technical expertise. IP Theft The revelations come on the heels of the EU-China Summit on April 9, in which Beijing pledged that it would no longer force European companies to transfer intellectual property as a condition for doing business in China. However, other forms of intellectual property (IP) theft, including cyber hacking and human espionage, were not addressed in the summits final communique. Meanwhile, the United States has stepped up efforts to clamp down on Chinese economic espionage. In December 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted two Chinese hackers for stealing IP and business data from companies around the world. The hackers were working for Chinas chief intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, the DOJ said, and targeted companies from an array of industriesmany that the Chinese regime wants to aggressively develop under an ambitious industrial plan known as Made in China 2025. Earlier in November 2018, federal prosecutors also indicted Chinese semiconductor firm Fujian Jinhua, Taiwanese company UMC, and three Taiwanese individuals for conspiring to steal trade secrets from U.S. chipmaker Micron, related to the development of advanced microchips. Reuters contributed to this article. EU Sets Halloween Deadline for Mays Brexit Plan, Warns UK to Not Waste This Time LONDONThe EU has given the UK six more months to leave the bloc, with European Council President Donald Tusk urging British authorities to not waste this time. The second extension to Brexit has stopped the clocks on the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement on April 12. But its still unclear how, and even if, Brexit will happen. European Council President Donald Tusk addressed reporters at a news conference in Brussels in the early hours of April 11. This extension is as flexible as I expected, and a little bit shorter than I expected, but its still enough to find the best possible solution, he said. A flexible extension means that the UK could cut ties with the EU earlier than the new Oct. 31 deadline, if British lawmakers can reach a consensus on a Brexit deal that has been agreed upon with the remaining 27 EU nations. #EU27 & UK have agreed a flexible #Brexit extension until 31 October. Watch the summary of the special #EUCO & find out more about the ocutome of the meeting: https://t.co/Y6UiTiIglm pic.twitter.com/9JuScDcGzT EU Council (@EUCouncil) April 11, 2019 Tusk, a former Polish premier who has long tried to keep a door open for Britons to change their minds and stay, said the delay until Halloween gave time for London to ratify Prime Minister Theresa Mays deal, tweak elements of the future EUUK relationship to opposition Labour partys liking, or give it a chance to cancel Brexit altogether. May updated the UK parliament on the developments on April 11, saying she knows there is frustration in the country. Speaking of talks she is having with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, she said she knows its not a normal way of British politics and is uncomfortable. Legislators will break for the Easter recess from April 11 until April 23. Lets use the opportunity of the recess to reflect on the decisions that will have to be made on our return after Easter and then let us resolve a way through this impasse, so that we can avoid having to hold those European elections and deliver on the decision of the referendum, deliver Brexit, May said. Britons voted to leave the EU, in June 2016, by 52 percent to 48 percent; British lawmakers cant agree on the direction of Brexit, with views split along the usual party lines. It was the depths of winter when British lawmakers first rejected Mays deal. The parliament is still in deadlock over her deal, which has been rejected three times. Anand Menon, director of the think tank UK in a Changing Europe, said that British lawmakers are ironically, representing the British public very well. There is no majority among MPs for any outcome, but there is no majority among British people for any outcome, he said in an interview. Brexit has divided us, and there is no stable majority for anything. Halloween Compromise French President Emmanuel Macron, reprising a role he took last month when May got a first, two-week delay, pushed leaders into hours of debate over dinner as he fought a largely solo campaign to persuade them not to give the British up to another year. Macron defended his resistance to giving Britain nine months or a year more, saying it was for the common good. French officials, pointing to threats by some of Mays pro-Brexit potential successors, spoke of the EU facing blackmail by a future British government blocking decisions in Brussels. The result was a compromise on the date, with a deadline of Oct. 31 for Britain to leave, deal or no dealon condition that May holds an election on May 23 to return British members to a new European Parliament that convenes in July, and that it pledge not to disrupt key EU decision-making before it leaves. If May fails to win over lawmakers on the treaty or fails to hold an election, Britain will leave with no deal on June 1. Reuters contributed to this report. UK Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at a European Union emergency summit on Brexit in Brussels on April 10, 2019. Alastair Grant/Pool via REUTERS EU Wrangles Over New Brexit Delay Sought by May BRUSSELSEuropean Union leaders were poised to grant Prime Minister Theresa May a second delay to Britains fraught exit at an emergency summit on April 10, after arguing over how long and on what terms. The question isnt whether there will be an extension but for how long and under what conditions, a senior diplomat said. May Wants Out Soon Legally, Britain is due to leave the EU on April 12 with no transition to new trading arrangements. But leaders insisted they would not force Britain out in a disorderly departure. If they need a little more time, I think its reasonable to discuss what that would be, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said, noting that Britain still faced choicesto leave without a deal, accept the deal that its parliament has rejected three times, or change its mind and stay in the EU. May has asked the EU to wait until June 30. I want us to be able to leave the European Union in a smooth and orderly way as soon as possible, she said. Ive asked for an extension to June 30, but what is important is that the extension enables us to leave at the point at which we ratify the Withdrawal Agreement, so we could leave on May 22 and start to build our brighter future. Some leaders, like Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, said Britain should have a year more to sort itself out. Others, like Swedish premier Stefan Lofven, echoed Macrons concerns about the risks of a long extension for the functioning of the EU. Flextensions Summit chair Donald Tusk has proposed a flextension of nine months to a year. If Britain does not elect EU lawmakers, it must leave, with or without a deal, on June 1, according to a draft summit agreement seen by Reuters. Otherwise, it would leave as soon as it ratifies the deal, or without one when the extension ends. The final end-date was still blank in a new draft circulated during the summit, but it did add lines to acknowledge Macrons call for tight conditions to prevent Britain disrupting the Union from within if it takes longer to reach the exit. Paris also wants a new summit once it is clearer whether or not there will be an early ratification or a British EU vote. If granted an extension to, say, the end of this year, any British government would be unable to leave earlier, even if it wanted to, unless it signed up to the Withdrawal Agreement. In preparatory meetings, the Dutch, among others, argued that a long extension now would increase pressure on pro-Brexit critics of Mays deal to accept it for fear that a long delay would increase the probability of Britain staying in the EU. Black Hole Brexit? EU leaders are exasperated with Mays handling of a tortuous and potentially expensive divorce that many feel is a distraction from ensuring the bloc can hold its own beside the United States and China on trade and other issues. Across from the summit venue, the EU executive celebrated its part in funding a global project that produced the first picture of a black holeprompting no shortage of ironic comments on social media about the juxtaposition. Blogger Eliot Higgins tweeted: Were now more certain about what black holes look like than what Brexit looks like. By Elizabeth Piper, Robin Emmott & Alissa de Carbonnel Virginia Beach Animal Control officers are looking for "Rocky" the serval (City of Virginia Beach) Exotic Large Cat Is on the Loose in Virginia Beach, Say Officails Officials in Virginia Beach, Virginia, said that an exotic cat that weighs about 25 pounds is on the loose in the city. The animal, city officials said, appears to be a cross between a house cat and a leopard. Its known as a Serval, which is native to Africa, according to the African Wildlife Foundation. UPDATE: "Rocky" the serval's owner has been located, but unfortunately, the batteries in his GPS tracking collar died Posted by Virginia Beach City Government on Thursday, April 11, 2019 The cat may be social with humans, however Animal Control does not suggest anyone approach or interact with it, said the city of Virginia Beachs Facebook post. This type of cat is known to eat small rodents, such as mice and squirrels, as well as small birds, it added. Virginia Beach Animal Control officers responded to a report of the cat on April 10 but discovered only animal tracks, officials said. The big cat is also about 25 inches tall and had a collar on with two boxes (possibly electric fencing or tracking), said city officials. PLEASE SHARE: This morning, Animal Control responded to a sighting of an exotic cat near the 2300 block of Shore Dr. Posted by Virginia Beach City Government on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 In an update on April 11, the servals owner was located, but he said the batteries in his GPS tracking collar died about three days after he went missing. It added that the cats name is Rocky. According to the new post, His owner and Animal Control have a plan to trap him. His last known location is the Shore Dr. area near the state park. An exotic cat was found near Shore Drive in Virginia Beach, and Animal Control is now working with the owner, from Kitty Hawk, to try and capture it. Posted by 13News Now WVEC on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 IF YOU SEE HIM, PLEASE NOTIFY DISPATCH ASAP at 757-385-5000, officials warned. But it stipulated that Rocky is domesticated and is used to being around people, children, and dogs. TV station WVEC identified the owner as Brian Hankins, who said he is working with local authorities to find the serval. He told the outlet that the cat went missing in October. He is not dangerous to children or dogs or other cats, Hankins wrote on the citys Facebook page. The serval is well-known to residents of the Outer Banks, North Carolina, and has been spotted many times and caught on security camera footage, OBXToday.com reported. Traps have been set and wildlife trackers have worked to find him, but the elusive feline evaded capture, said OBXToday.com on April 10. This exotic runaway was spotted yesterday, more than 80 miles from home. Posted by WYFF News 4 on Thursday, April 11, 2019 Hankins said that the serval can travel up to 20 miles per day and has been traveling between Virginia Beach and Kitty Hawk, WVEC reported. While North Carolina is one of a few states that does not regulate ownership of exotic animals, Dare County Manager and Attorney Robert Outten told OBXToday.com that Rockys owner might face a penalty. One ordinance requires that a vicious, fierce or dangerous animal be restrained or confined. It allows impoundment and if it meets certain conditions ultimately it may be destroyed, Outten told the news website, which also reported that Rocky has killed a number of local residents chickens. WYFF reported that he is known to eat seagulls. The African Wildlife Foundation says servals are common on savannas where there is plenty of water and prefer areas of bush, tall grass, and dry reed beds near streams, but they are also found in high-altitude moorlands and bamboo thickets. They are found in most parts of Africa, with the exception of Central Equatorial Africa, the very Southern part of the continent, and the Sahara region, it says. According to the International Society for Endangered Cats (ISEC) organization, servals are not endangered and have a stable population. The main predators on Servals are Leopards (Panthera pardus), dogs, and humans. Their fine markings make them a prime target for poachers, serval skins are also sold as young Leopard or Cheetah, which are much more scarce. This pelt trade appears to be domestic for traditional ceremonial or medicinal purposes, it says. Bottom photo credit: 111 Emergency via Flickr / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Father and Son Scammed Donors and Researchers by Selling Infected Body Parts, Say Federal Charges An Illinois father and son have been charged for allegedly selling body parts infected with HIV, sepsis, and hepatitis to unwitting dentists and medics. Another man is already serving nine years for the scheme, which involved collecting bodies from people who thought they were donating to science, dismembering them and selling them to researchers and educators for large sums of money. The federal charges state the goal of the scheme was to profit from payments made by customers who were unaware that they either received remains that had tested positive for serious infectious diseases or were unable to be tested for these diseases. The scheme allegedly ran from 2008 to 2014 in and around Illinois. Donald Greene Sr. is charged with wire fraud, according to federal documents cited by Michigan Live. His son, Donald Greene II, is charged with intentionally concealing a crime. They both were associated with the now-closed Biological Resource Centre of Rosemont, Illinois, which sold and leased bodies and body parts. The two allegedly promised people that the donated bodies would go to medical research, according to CBS. It's a story of precious cargo and broken promises that donated bodies would go to medical research. Instead, federal officials say they were sold for up to $100,000 on the black market. Posted by ABC21 WPTA on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 One mother was told her sons tissues would be donated to college research centers, according to a search warrant cited by the news outlet. They were sold for $5,000. The warrant also says that some bodies were sold for up to $100,000. According to M Live, the U.S. Attorneys Office also said in court documents that Green Sr. falsely reported to customers on eight occasions between 2008 and 2014 that remains they received tested negative for specified infectious diseases. The documents say that at least one specimen was sold to Detroit Medical Centers sports medicine department. That specimen had previously tested positive for hepatitis. This fact was concealed by Donald A. Greene Sr.s scheme to defraud. The pair are accused of keeping bodies known to have HIV, sepsis and hepatitis on ice and then selling them, some for up to $100,000. Posted by Fox 8 News on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 The buying and selling of organ parts is loosely regulated in comparison with live organs for donation. Selling, buying, and leasing body parts is not illegalbut it is illegal to sell infected body parts without informing the buyer. At the time of writing, no reports have indicated any response from the Greens lawyers. According to reports, the charges were filed as a criminal information, suggesting a guilty plea is expected. The Illinois scheme was first investigated back in 2013. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1603635473223629/permalink/2038976493022856/ In May 2018, Arthur Rathburn, 63, was sentenced to 108 months in federal prison after having been convicted earlier in the year on charges of wire fraud, transportation of hazardous material, and false statements in a scheme involving the distribution of body parts. According to Detroit Free Press, he made $13 million from the scheme. On one occasion Rathburn tried to take a human head of an individual who had died of bacterial sepsis and pneumonia for air transit, in violation of federal regulations. The human head was packaged in a trash bag placed within a camping cooler, said a statement from the Attorneys Office. Seven other human heads were also part of the shipment and packed in the same manner. Large quantities of liquid blood were found within the coolers. Arthur Rathburn carried out a long-term, complex scheme to increase his personal profits, showing little respect to the donors and risking the welfare of those in the medical and dental community relying on human remains free from hepatitis, HIV, and other dangerous diseases, said Timothy R. Slater, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI in a statement. We hope this sentence brings closure to the victims of Arthur Rathburn, stated United States Attorney Matthew Schneider at the time. Rathburns disgraceful conduct not only put the health of innocent people at risk, he showed a complete lack of regard for the donors and their families, who are all victims. Female Driver Arrested After Crash Sends Pedestrian Flying 9 Feet Across Road A woman is in custody and being questioned about a March 27 road accident in Brooklyn, involving a Dodge Challenger that sent a pedestrian flying more than 9 feet across the street. Julia Litmonovich, 49, of Staten Island is accused of driving the American muscle car that collided with Xin Yi Wang, 14, at the intersection of 47 Street and 9th Avenue in Borough Park. Police detained the suspect at her home on April 10 within hours of identifying her as the suspect but had to move her again from Brooklyns 66th Precinct in Borough Park to a nearby Maimonides Medical Center. Authorities provided no reason for the treatment and the womans face appeared to be pale with an oxygen tube inserted in her nose according to the New York Daily News. This is kind of a little shock, neighbor Vincent Capri, 56, said after watching the arrest. Hit-and-run driver who struck 14-year-old girl in Brooklyn has been arrested, police say https://t.co/RSS9NouVz7 pic.twitter.com/7XTJUPoaUD NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) April 11, 2019 The New York Police Department (NYPD) claims the suspect ran a red light on 47 Street at about 4 p.m. local time on March 27. The Challenger with Georgia license plates is believed to have crashed into Wang while she was making her way along the crosswalk. The female driver exited her vehicle to check on the victim but fled the scene when a witness called 911, NYPD Patrol Borough Brooklyn North said in a Facebook post dated April 9. The victim was transported to Maimonides Hospital with bruising to her torso and legs. March 27, 2019 at 1600 hours an unidentified female was driving a black Dodge Challenger on 47 Street and struck a 14 year-old female, who was crossing 47 Street at 9th Avenue. The female driver exited her vehicle to check on the victim but fled the scene when a witness called 911. The victim was transported to Maimonides Hospital with bruising to her torso and legs. The individual is described as white female, 35-40 years-old, medium-heavy set with brown hair. She was last seen driving a black Dodge Challenger with Georgia license plates.Anyone with information in regard 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 CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. Posted by NYPD Patrol Borough Brooklyn North on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 NYPD initially described the suspect as a white female, between 35 and 40 years old, 5 feet 6 inches, 160 pounds, medium-heavy set with brown hair. Julia Litmonovich, 49, has brown hair and is described as being 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighting about 160 pounds, the NYPD said https://t.co/lbA62Av2Lc NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) April 10, 2019 Police said the womans record sheet of arrests and prosecutions shows she was already arrested 30 times, including once for leaving the scene of an accident where she rear-ended another car on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island back in the year 2007. EXCLUSIVE arrest video: Suspect in crash that sent Brooklyn teen hurtling into traffic has 30 prior arrests including previous hit-and-run See cops arrest the driver of a black Dodge Challenger that ran a red light and plowed into a teen.https://t.co/uipvcJ8L6G New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) April 10, 2019 WANTED: police sources say Julia Litmonovich has been arrested in #NYC more than 20 times including for leaving an accident scene in 2007. Shes now wanted for leaving scene of a separate accident days ago after crashing into a 14yo as teen crossed street in Brooklyn @NBCNewYork pic.twitter.com/7JevXgf8OY Marc Santia (@MarcSantia4NY) April 10, 2019 At the time, the woman allegedly phoned the other driver to ask her to take the blame for the accident, threatening that she had two pit bulls for safety. In the end, Litmonovich plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a one-year probation, according to the Staten Island district attorneys office. In the latest accident, Wang was fortunate enough to be able to avoid oncoming traffic and even stood up afterwards. Wang said that suspect exited the car to hug her in relief and even offer her a ride home, but she refused. I thought to myself, if she was able to hurt me this much and do something that dangerous what else would she do? Wang said. So I said no and got out of there. Its why I got up so fast, I was scared. It was an extremely bad experience. The driver returned to her vehicle and told a bystander who was calling the police that she was going to park the car, but she sped off before officers arrived on the scene. After the incident, Wang said she now fears crossing the street, experiences challenges in concentrating on her studies, and still suffers from severe bruising to her hip. At first I thought, Oh my God, did I do something wrong? Did I cross at the wrong time? I was so shocked, she said, according to the Daily News. But then I realized shes the one who did something wrong. Teen who was struck by a hit-and-run driver in #Brooklyn: I never thought this would happen in real life. Heres her story, and how you can help: https://t.co/RDSSdNVttx Cellino & Barnes (@Cellino_Barnes) April 8, 2019 Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline by phoning 1 800 577 8477 or online at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com Former Minnesota Vikings Part-Owner, Wife Found Dead in Murder-Suicide: Police Irwin L. Jacobs, a former part-owner of the Minnesota Vikings, was found dead on April 10 in a murder-suicide, according to reports. Officials believe Jacobs, a millionaire, shot and killed his wife, Alexandra, before killing himself in their $22 million home in Lake Minnetonka, reported the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Officials did not identify the two bodies in the home, but people close to the couple said that he shot her before turning the gun on himself, reported the Star-Tribune. Family friend Dennis Mathisen described Jacobs as upbeat three days before the incident took place. Businessman Irwin Jacobs, Wife Found Dead In Suspected Murder-Suicide https://t.co/NX6XdpYC2e The Forward (@jdforward) April 10, 2019 I talked with his son Mark yesterday, and he talked to both of them, Mathisen told the newspaper. He said Irwin seemed up. Jacobs and his wife were both 77, and they were married for 57 years. In a statement, his children said that they are heartbroken by this loss, and we ask that our privacy be respected as we grieve during this very difficult time, reported Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), adding that the family is shocked and devastated by the death of our parents. Former Vikings part-owner Irwin Jacobs upbeat days before murder-suicide https://t.co/4S8XM6iypz pic.twitter.com/2u5qbPAi5P New York Post (@nypost) April 11, 2019 Hennepin County emergency dispatchers received a call of a man and woman who was found dead in a bed at their home. A handgun was on the bed, Orono Chief Correy Farniok told MPR. According to the Star-Tribune, Jacobs made his millions by purchasing and liquidating failed companies. At one point, he was worth $200 million. Critics branded Jacobs as Irv the Liquidator for the way he took apart companies that he acquired, sometimes leaving big job cuts in his wake, the public broadcaster said. Jacobs, in 1985, said he had no regrets about how he handled his business. The bodies were discovered in a bed next to a handgun by a routine visitor of the Minnesota residence. Posted by People on Thursday, April 11, 2019 From my own personal accomplishments, Im beyond whatever I dreamt I would be in my life. More important than that I feel good about what I do and I love what I do, he said. Meanwhile, Jacobs said at the time that he didnt take offense to the liquidator moniker. We dont buy companies, tear them down and sell them to the scrap mills. We have 500 locations throughout the world, 46 countries, 60,000 employees, $2 billion in revenues, he was quoted by MPR as saying. And Im a raider. And thats OK. I got no problem with it. Matter of fact, somebody said to me one time, Are you offended by the [label] raider? I said, Its a very elite group.' Police said the two dead bodies were found in bed with a gun. Posted by New York Daily News on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 Two years later, Fortune magazine called him one of the top biggest corporate raiders, saying he had a $750 million war chest to work with, reported MPR. My love is not raiding. Its creating. All my life, Ive been looking for value where other people cant find it, he also said. Jacobs also had a stake in the Vikings in the 1980s before selling off his share, noted MPR. Hes not the same as Irwin M. Jacobs, the 85-year-old co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm. Suicide Hotlines If you are in an emergency in the United States or Canada, please call 911. You can phone the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1 800 273 8255. Youth can call the Kids Help Phone on 1800 668 6868. In Australia, the suicide prevention telephone hotline at Lifeline is 13 11 14. You can also visit the Lifeline website at lifeline.org.au. Youth can contact the Kids Helpline by phoning 1800 551 800 or visiting headspace.org.au/yarn-safe President Barack Obama (R) greets White House counsel Gregory Craig during an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House Jan. 21, 2009. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Former Obama White House Counsel Expects Indictment on Foreign Lobbying Charges Former President Barack Obamas White House counsel Greg Craig expects to be indicted for violating foreign lobbying laws, according to his lawyers. Craig has long been rumored to be the subject of a federal investigation spun off from the special counsel probe by Robert Mueller. Craig was pulled into Muellers net as part of the special counsels scrutiny of veteran political operative Paul Manafort and his work on behalf of Ukrainian politicians. Manafort was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for illicit foreign lobbying and other crimes in March. Craigs former law firm has already paid more than $4.6 million and acknowledged that it failed to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine. The civil settlement with the firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, laid much of the blame for the violation on Craig. Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the governments stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion, the attorneys, William Taylor and William Murphy, said in a statement on April 10. The probe into Craig comes as the Justice Department is reportedly cracking down on violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a decades-old law meant to allow Americans to know when foreign entities are trying to influence public opinion or policymakers. Craigs attorneys said they expected to be charged by the federal attorneys office in Washington at the request of the Justice Departments national security division. Craig was the first White House counsel to former President Barack Obama. In private practice, his clients have included former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and James Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was investigated and charged for leaking classified information. The work in question in Craigs case is tied to another successful prosecution by the special counsels office. Early last year, Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to making false statements to the special counsel in relation to his work for Craig and Skadden. He wrote a report on the prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Ukrainian prime minister. Tymoshenko was a political opponent of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was a longtime Manafort patron. Craig was not named in the statement of offense (pdf). Skadden was referred to as Law Firm A. Van der Zwaan, a Belgian-born Dutch national, was sentenced to 30 days in prison in April last year. In its settlement earlier this year, the Skadden firm acknowledged it had participated in a public relations campaign for the report and should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, because of it. The firm also acknowledged it had been paid $4.6 million for the report and not just $12,000, as the Ukrainian government had said at the time. The settlement painted an unflattering picture of Craigs conduct. In 2012 and 2013, the firms work attracted the attention of the Justice Department, which sought to determine whether the firm should register under FARA. But according to the settlement, a senior partner matching Craigs description made several false and misleading statements to the government, allowing the firm to avoid registration. In the statement on April 11, Craigs lawyers denied that he lied to the government or his firm. They acknowledged that Craig spoke to reporters about the report but denied it was part of a public relations campaign that would run afoul of FARA. Mr. Craig repeatedly refused requests that he participate in Ukraines media and lobbying campaign to promote the Tymoshenko Report, they wrote. They said he spoke to reporters at The New York Times about the report to make certain that the Times would accurately summarize the reports criticisms of the Tymoshenko trial and not rely on misinformation from Ukraine and its representatives. The special counsel investigation concluded that neither President Donald Trump nor anyone in his campaign colluded with Russia. Attorney General William Barr is expected to release Muellers final report within a week. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Former Obama White House Counsel Indicted for Lying About Foreign Lobbying Federal prosecutors in Washington indicted former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig on April 11, accusing him of making false statements in connection to his foreign lobbying work in Ukraine. Prosecutors say Craig lied to both his law firm and government investigators about the extent and nature of his contacts with the media in connection to a report he prepared on Ukraine. The prosecutors allege Craig knowingly perpetrated the scheme in order to avoid registering as a foreign agent, which would undermine the perception of independence of both the report and Craig and impair the ability of Craig and others at the law firm to later return to government positions. Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the governments stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion, the attorneys, William Taylor and William Murphy, said in a statement on April 10, the day before their client was indicted. Craig, 74, faces a five-year sentence for each of the two charges. The prominent Washington attorney has long been rumored to be the subject of a federal investigation resulting from the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. The special counsel has already successfully prosecuted a case connected to the Ukraine report at the center of Craigs case. Alex van der Zwaan, a Belgian-born Dutch national, was sentenced to 30 days in prison in April 2018 for lying about his work related to the report. Craigs former law firm has already paid more than $4.6 million and acknowledged that it failed to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine. The civil settlement with the firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, laid much of the blame for the violations on Craig. According to the indictment (pdf), Ukraine engaged Craig and Skadden in 2012 to prepare a report about the trial, conviction, and sentencing of Yulia Tymoshenko, which has been perceived by Western government and media as unfair and politically motivated. Ukraine sought the report as part of a lobbying campaign to improve its international image. Craig was aware of the registration requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act but didnt want to register, the prosecutors say. Registering would have required Craig to disclose that a third party had paid the law firm more than $4 million for the report and that the law firm had a parallel engagement with Ukraine to assist in the prosecution of Tymoshenko on additional charges, the indictment stated. The $4 million was paid by a private Ukrainian citizen whose identity Craig and his colleague concealed, and instead drafted false, backdated invoices showing that the funds came from the Ukrainian government. The probe into Craig comes as the Justice Department is reportedly cracking down on violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a decades-old law meant to allow Americans to know when foreign entities are trying to influence public opinion or policymakers. Veteran political operative Paul Manafort was sentenced in March to 7 1/2 years in prison for illicit foreign lobbying and other as part of Muellers Russia investigation. Mueller concluded his investigation in March, finding that neither President Donald Trump nor anyone in his campaign colluded with Russia. Attorney General William Barr is expected to release Muellers final report within a week. Craig was the first White House counsel to former President Barack Obama. In private practice, his clients have included former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and James Cartwright, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was investigated and charged for leaking classified information. Reuters contributed to this report. Gas Station Customer Sprayed in Face With Fire Extinguisher A gas station attendant sprayed a fire extinguisher into a customers car and face for lighting a cigarette. After police arrived, the man was detained for three days for creating a fire and explosive hazard. Security camera caught the footage on March 24 in Zhejiang Province, China. The footage was released on April 9, and reported by many mainland Chinese news outlets. The driver, named Li, went to get gas around 8 oclock in the morning. On his way out, he stopped at the exit, and was seen by gas station attendants to be lighting up a cigarette, according to multiple news outlets. Police told the Ningbo China News that Li claimed he had already left the gas station and it shouldnt have been a problem. When the attendants saw the car stopped there, one of them, surnamed Qian, grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran over to the car. Qian then spoke to Li through the rolled-down drivers side window. Multiple reports said that Qian told Li to put out the cigarette, but the driver ignored the demand. A white cloud then blasts into the car, as Qian sprays the extinguisher right into Lis face. Li appears to put the car into park, then gets out, and aggressively approaches Qian. Li puts his right hand on Qians neck and shoves him back. Qian responds with another, longer spray from the fire extinguisher right into Lis face. Li walks away, his clothing covered in white powder, appearing stunned. He then approaches Qian once more, appearing to verbally threaten him. Other attendants approach the two, and one brushes off Li, in what appears to be an attempt to calm him down. Li and all the other attendants then appear to walk back to the main building of the gas station. The incident was reported to the police, who later arrived and detained Li. He was kept for three days for creating both a fire and explosive hazard, according to multiple media reports. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (C) waves a walking stick as he rides in the back of a pickup truck in an advancing motorcade in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province, on Sept. 21, 2017. (Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images) Global Affairs Warns Against Travel to Sudan, Shuts Embassy Following Coup OTTAWAGlobal Affairs Canada is warning Canadians to avoid all travel to Sudan after the countrys longtime leader was ousted in a military coup. The military arrested Omar al-Bashir on Thursday following months of protests and unrest, and ordered a state of emergency. The declaration means security forces can search any building, put restrictions on movements and travel, or arrest anyone based on a suspicion of criminal activity. An updated travel advisory from Global Affairs Canada released after the coup detat notes that protests are intensifying in Sudan and the security situation could deteriorate quickly. Canadians in the country are being told to minimize their movements and avoid protests and demonstrations, which civil activists have vowed to continue. Those caught up in the protests should shelter in place until it is safe to leave, have an emergency supply of water and food, and make sure travel documents are in order, Global Affairs Canada says in the advisory. Given the unrest and uncertainty, the government has closed the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum. The militarys removal of al-Bashir came days after similar protests in Algeria forced Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign as president. An updated travel advisory to that country released last week says travellers should exercise a high degree of caution over politically motivated demonstrations and strikes throughout the country. Good Samaritans donated a car to a 25-year-old man who has been walking four hours to and from work for 10 years. (Stock Snap/Pixabay) Good Samaritans Donate Car to a Man Who Walked 2 Hours Each Way to Work for a Decade A twenty-five-year-old man has been walking two hours to work and two hours from work for about 10 years until recently when someone stopped him on his walk. Elijah, identified only by his given name, has been homeless on and off for about a decade and has been walking from his motel room in Jackson, Mississippi to his job in Richland. I walk from work every day. Two hours to work, two hours from work. And on top of that, I work eight and a half hours on my feet, Elijah told WLBT. Ive been doing this since I was 15 until I met my wife. And when that transportation went down, I went back to basics, he said. Good Samaritans donate car to homeless Mississippi man https://t.co/xmpoxyBtkW WSFA 12 News (@wsfa12news) April 10, 2019 Until last week Elijah was walking to work, thats a driver pulled over and offered him a ride in his car. It was an unexpected pickup. I was walking alongside of the road and he asked me one questionare you walking for your health or did I need a ride? Elijah said. He shared with the driver about his ordeals and the driver shared it with his friends. Together these friends were able to gather enough money to buy Elijah a car. When the couple first saw the car, his wife Tabitha was overwhelmed. We was like, stop lying. It was unbelievable. God has a way of putting you in the right place at the right time, she said. AMAZING: He was walking two hours to and from work every day, on top of working eight and a half on his feet. But his life turned around when one stranger made him an offer that led to his life changing.https://t.co/7H6xF1Xyz4 wdam (@wdam) April 10, 2019 These good Samaritans didnt want to stop there, they wanted to help Elijah and Tabitha find a permanent home. A young man in Alabama in July 2018 had a similar story. He was left with no other option but to walk 20 miles on his first day to work, reported ABC News. Walter Carrs car broke down a day before his first day with the Bellhops moving company. Carr slept for four hours and left his home at Homewood at midnight to reach work on time the next day morning. On his way to the office, he sat down because his legs were hurting. Officer Mark Knighten of Pelham Police Department, spotted him when he had 8 to 10 miles to go. Young man walked miles for first day of work, gets car from CEO https://t.co/tt2Amn6Qfm pic.twitter.com/I8SDvnz90Z WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) July 18, 2018 Knighten and two other officers took Carr for breakfast. I didnt want to defeat myself, Carr shared with the police officers that he was determined to reach office. When he was 5 years old, he and his mother lost their home to Hurricane Katrina. Carr was to receive his associates degree later that year. Impressed by Carrs attitude, Bellhops CEO, Luke Marklin gifted him a car. Walter is incredible, and what he did is incredible, Marklin told ABC News. Its everything our company stands for. Marklin said that Carr truly raised the bar. How Much Are Americans Donating? Americans gave $410 billion in 2017 to nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and other charities, according to the Giving USA 2018 study, reported The Conversation. This was more than $20 billion more than what Americans gave in 2016. The report, however, says that the number of Americans donating fell from 68.5 percent in 2002 to 55.5 percent in 2014. Though the number of people donating has decreased, the Americans giving money gave more money than they did earlier. The families who donated in 2000, gave an average of $2,041 and it increased to $2,514 in 2014. This combination of undated photos provided by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department shows Eric Desplinter, left, of Chino Hills, Calif., and Gabrielle Wallace of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. (San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department/File via AP) Hikers Missing in Southern California Mountains Found Safe MOUNT BALDY VILLAGE, CaliforniaTwo hikers who vanished in snowy Southern California mountains were found safe on Wednesday, April 10, by rescuers who spent days searching the rugged heights. Gabrielle Wallace, 31, of Rancho Cucamonga and Eric Desplinter, 33, of Chino Hills, went missing on Saturday, April 6, in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. A search team found two sets of footprints in Cucamonga Canyon, south of Mount Baldy, and followed them. A helicopter sent to the area spotted two people near a campfire, according to a statement from the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department. The Search and Rescue operation continues for two missing hikers in the Mount Baldy area. If anyone has seen Eric or Posted by San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 The hikers were to be flown to the Mount Baldy fire station to be reunited with their families and paramedics would determine whether they need further treatment, the statement said. The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, which helped with the search, described the pair as being safely located but there were no immediate details about their conditions. Miracles happen, and this is a miracle, Mike Leum with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said in a tweet. We always search assuming our subjects are alive until proven otherwise. Miracles happen. https://t.co/sK1QQna2I3 Mike Leum (@Resqman) April 10, 2019 The hikers vanished while heading toward the 8,860-foot Cucamonga Peak near Mount Baldy. Desplinter was described as an experienced hiker and the two were carrying proper equipment for the icy conditions. Search-and-rescue teams from six counties volunteered to help comb some 30 square miles of the mountains, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department. The two had set out with a group of four people but the other two turned back out of concern about the danger of the trail, KABC-TV reported. Brenda Wallace, Gabrielles mother, told KCBS-TV that Desplinter was her daughters boss and that her daughter had recently bought hiking gear for the trip. I know he wouldnt leave her and she wouldnt leave him, she said. Missing Persons Over 600,000 people go missing in the United States every year, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Many of the missing adults and children are found safe but others are never found or are found dead. It is estimated that 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered each year, with approximately 1,000 of those bodies remaining unidentified after one year, the center stated. The first 72 hours in a missing persons case is the most critical, according to criminology experts. Thats partly because investigators have the best chance of following up on leads before peoples memories start to fade, Dr. Bryanna Fox, former FBI agent and criminology professor at the University of South Florida, told ABC News. The information that law enforcement gets tends to be a little more accurate, and they are able to act on the information and hopefully get that person who is missing quicker, Fox said. Later, there are fewer bread crumbs, or leads, to follow. Dr. Michelle Jeanis, criminology professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said that time is of the essence because the missing person could be in danger. After about a week, the person could very likely be dead, said former FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Gomez. Theres a certain point after about a week or two where you have to think, the potential that the missing person is dead and now its a matter of trying to find their body and bring closure to the family and to determine if you now have a homicide investigation, or suicide, or some kind of accidental death, he said. House Oversight Republicans Call for Cohen to be Investigated for Lying Again to Congress WASHINGTONRepublicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee are calling on Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to refer former personal attorney to President Donald Trump Michael Cohen to the Department of Justice for prosecution. They allege that Cohen lied to Congress seven additional times during a Feb. 27 Oversight Committee hearing after pleading guilty last year to lying to Congress. Ranking Member [Jim] Jordan (R-Ohio) and the rest of us warned the Democrats that we couldnt trust a man who was going to jail for lying to Congress, Oversight member Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said during a press conference in Washington April 10. But they couldnt help themselvesthey took the bait, hook, line and sinker. Green has authored a resolution that calls on the transcript of the Feb. 27 hearing to be sent to the Department of Justice to aid the Attorney Generals consideration of investigation and potential prosecution of Michael Cohens criminal conduct. The Oversight GOP says they plan to vote on the resolution in two weeks. The Lie The main lie, the committee Republicans allege, centers around Cohens assertion during the hearing that he never asked Trump to pardon him. I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump, he told the committee. In a letter to Cummings, Cohens attorney, Lanny Davis, said that Cohen could have been clearer regarding the time frames, which contradicts Cohens statement that he never asked for a pardon. Cummings said on CNN on March 7 that he told Cohen he would nail you to the cross [if you lie]. And I meant that. Cummings also said he needed to make sure they are true inconsistencies and not outright lies. And then I gotta find out if it meets even the threshold that the DOJ would even want to look at it. But after reviewing a letter from Davis, Cummings said that, at least on that point, he wasnt going to press for a perjury investigation. Our practice on this Committee is to give witnesses an opportunity to clarify their testimony, and that is what Mr. Cohen has done, Cummings wrote in a March 13 statement. I do not see the need for further actionat least at this time. However, I understand that Mr. Cohen may have answered more detailed questions on this same topic the day after our hearing when the Intelligence Committee had him in for a closed session. We will review that transcript when it becomes available and determine whether any additional steps are required. Republicans allege that Democrats dont dispute that Cohen lied in that hearing. NTD called and emailed Cummingss office to verify that, but has not yet received a response. A month and a half after Cohens testimony, Republicans say the chairman has had enough time to review the transcripts and make a decision as to whether Cohen lied. His inaction, and the inaction of House Democrats, only encourages future witnesses to lie to us, Green said. Democrats claim that they want to get to the truth, but it appears that theyre perfectly OK with witnesses lying to them, as long as it supports their anti-Trump agenda. Cohen Already Facing 3 Years Behind Bars Last November, Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to Congress as part of a plea deal made with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The perjury charge stems from a letter Cohen sent on Aug. 28, 2017, to the House and Senate Intelligence committees, in which he gave a false statement about a Trump Organization real estate project in Moscow. He is set to go to prison in May to serve three years for lying to Congress and other federal crimes. Oversight member Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Oversight Ranking Member Jim Jordan have already sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr asking him to look into whether Cohen perjured himself again this year. Jordan had also tried to introduce the resolution to the committee in March, according to a press release from Greens office. Greens privileged committee resolution was filed April 2. There will be a vote on this, Meadows said. Hopefully, we will see that Democrats have come together in a bipartisan way to say that we will not allow a witness to come in here and lie and lie. From NTD.com Opinion: How Obama Officials Spied on Trump Commentary Attorney General William Barr told congressional lawmakers on April 10 that he is investigating both the genesis and the conduct of intelligence activities directed at the Trump campaign during the 2016 elections. Barr said he plans to pull together all the information from the various investigations that have gone on, such as investigations conducted by Congress, and by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Longtime critics of President Donald Trump were quick to dismiss Barrs comments. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) went as far as to claim that Barr was perpetuating conspiracy theories, and CNN tried to write Barrs statements off by saying he didnt provide evidence. These are the same people who have lied to the American public for more than two years by claiming that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 elections. Even in the public domain, there has been an extensive body of informationsuch as court documents, media reports, text messages, emails, and congressional testimoniesthat provide documentary evidence that the Trump campaign was spied on. At this point in time, at least six different methods that the Obama administration used to spy on the Trump campaign have been made public: 1. FISA Warrant: Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was targeted with a FISA warrant by the FBI in October 2016. The warrant was subsequently renewed three times for 90-day periods. Other members of the Trump campaign might have had FISA warrants on them, as well. 2. Unmasking: Hundreds of so-called unmasking requests were made for the identities of members of the Trump campaign in intelligence reports. The House Intelligence Committee has so far identified Obamas national security adviser Susan Rice, Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, and former CIA Director John Brennan, as having filed such requests. 3. Undercover Informant: The FBI used Stefan Halper, an undercover agent, to infiltrate the Trump campaign. He contacted Trump campaign associates Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. Halper has ties to the CIA, as well as MI6. 4. National Security Letters: The use of national security letters to target the Trump campaign was first revealed by officials to The New York Times in a May 16, 2018, article. National security letters allow the FBI to secretly subpoena customer records from banks, phone companies, internet service providers, and others. 5. Foreign Intelligence: British intelligence agency GCHQ provided officials within the CIA with information on the Trump campaign as early as late 2015, The Guardian reported in April 2017. Then-head of GCHQ Robert Hannigan also provided Brennan with sensitive information on the Trump campaign on a director level in the summer of 2016. 6. Reverse Targeting: Brennan admitted in an Aug. 17, 2018, interview with MSNBCs Rachel Maddow that the CIA had obtained the communications of Americans associated with the Trump campaign through what appears to have been the use of reverse targeting. We call it incidental collection in terms of CIAs foreign intelligence collection authorities, Brennan said. We know from the nearly two-year-long, exhaustive investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller that there was never any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities, the Mueller report reads, as quoted in a summary letter to Congress by Barr. This raises the question, why did the CIA, FBI, and foreign governments engage in spying on the political campaign of a presidential candidate if there never was any evidence? And why was Hillary Clintons campaign, alongside the Democratic National Committee, funding the creation and spread of the so-called Steele dossierwhich contained the false allegations that Trump colluded with Russiainto the FBI, DOJ, State Department, Congress, and U.S. media organizations? Barr was right when he said: I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. It poses a threat to the very integrity of our election system and our freedoms. This scandal deserves to be thoroughly investigated to make sure it never happens again. Jasper Fakkert is the Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. editions of The Epoch Times. Assange Arrested in London After 7 Years in Ecuador Embassy, US Seeks Extradition LONDONWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy on Thursday, April 11, after his South American hosts abruptly revoked his seven-year asylum, paving the way for his extradition to the United States. The United States alleged Assange engaged in a 2010 conspiracy with Chelsea Manning, who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data, and charged him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion with a maximum penalty of five years. An agitated, frail-looking Assange with white hair and a white beard was carried head first out of the embassy shortly after 0900 GMT by at least seven men to a waiting police van. The whole House will welcome the news this morning that the Metropolitan Police have arrested Julian Assange, arrested for breach of bail after nearly seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy, Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament to cheers and cries of Hear, hear! from lawmakers. Police said they arrested Assange, 47, after being invited into the embassy following the Ecuadorean governments withdrawal of asylum. The arrests, after nearly seven years holed up in a few cramped rooms at the embassy, mark one of the most peculiar turns in a tumultuous life that has transformed the Australian programmer into a rebel wanted by the United States. Assanges supporters said Ecuador had betrayed him at the behest of Washington, that the termination of his asylum was illegal and that they feared he would ultimately end up on trial in the United States. To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. But to others, he is a dangerous rebel who has undermined U.S. security. Assange gave a thumbs up in handcuffs as he was taken from a police station, and he later appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court. WikiLeaks angered Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that laid bare often highly critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family. Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. It was not immediately clear what specifically prompted Ecuador to end Assanges stay in the embassy, or the extent of the diplomacy that led to the arrest. The Kremlin said it hoped his rights would not be violated. In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols. #EcuadorSoberano pic.twitter.com/pZsDsYNI0B Lenin Moreno (@Lenin) April 11, 2019 Years of Solitude Assange in June 2012 took refuge in Ecuadors London embassy, behind the luxury department store Harrods, to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. Sweden dropped that investigation in 2017, but Assange was arrested on Thursday for breaking the rules of his original bail in London. Friends of Assange said the solitude he had experienced in the embassy had hurt him most. It was a miserable existence and I could see it was a strain on him, but a strain he managed rather well, said Vaughan Smith, a friend who visited Assange. The thing that was most difficult for Julian was the solitude. He was very tough, but the last year in particular was very difficult. He was constantly being surveilled and spied upon. There was no privacy for him. WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated his political asylum in violation of international law. Assanges relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Morenos personal life. Moreno said Assanges diplomatic asylum status had been canceled for repeated violation of conventions. He said he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to any country where he might face torture or the death penalty. The British government has confirmed it in writing, Moreno said. The asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable. United States? Due to a clerical error, a document filed by federal prosecutors in Virginia in an unrelated 2018 investigation revealed that Assange had secretly been indicted by U.S. authorities. Prosecutors have acknowledged the authenticity of the document but have refused to confirm or deny that Assange has been criminally charged under U.S. federal law. Britain said no man was above the law. Julian Assange is no hero, he has hidden from the truth for years and years, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said. Its not so much Julian Assange being held hostage in the Ecuadorean embassy, its actually Julian Assange holding the Ecuadorean embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them. A Swedish lawyer representing the alleged rape victim said she would push to have prosecutors reopen the investigation. But Sven-Erik Alhem, a retired senior prosecutor and chairman of NGO Victim Support Sweden, said he thought that may be difficult. Id think it would be fairly uphill to reopen the investigation, mainly because testimonies usually weaken with time and its now been 10 years. On top of that, the statute of limitation is drawing near, he said. By Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton and Costas Pitas Kim Kardashian-West speaks at The Girls' Lounge dinner, giving visibility to women at Advertising Week 2016, at Pier 60 on September 27, 2016 in New York City. Kardashian doesn't want Kanye West to replace stolen engagement ring. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The Girls' Lounge) Kim Kardashian Studying to Become a Lawyer, Sets Goal to Take Bar Exam in 2022 Reality television star Kim Kardashian has revealed in a recent interview that she is studying to become a lawyerwithout actually going to law schooland has set a goal to take the bar exam in 2022. Kardashian, who is the Vogues May issue cover star, told the magazine that she started a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco last summer. California is one of only four states in the country where students can receive a legal education in a law office. The other three states include Virginia, Vermont, and Washington state. I had to think long and hard about this, the beauty mogul said. She said her career change was inspired by her successful advocacy work in seeking clemency for Alice Johnsons sentence. The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency, and Im sitting in the Roosevelt Room with, like, a judge who had sentenced criminals and a lot of really powerful people and I just sat there, like, Oh, [expletive] I need to know more, she explained to Vogue. I would say what I had to say, about the human side and why this is so unfair. But I had attorneys with me who could back that up with all the facts of the case. Its never one person who gets things done; its always a collective of people, and Ive always known my role, but I just felt like I wanted to be able to fight for people who have paid their dues to society. I just felt like the system could be so different, and I wanted to fight to fix it, and if I knew more, I could do more, she added. Kardashian will be required to study law during regular business hours for at least 18 hours each week with a minimum of 48 weeks to receive credit for one year of study, according to the Californian Bar admission rules. After completing her first year of study, Kardashian will be required to take the First-Year Law Students Exam or the baby bar that is set by the state. This test is for students who are not studying at an American Bar Association-accredited law school and is known for being notoriously difficult. If she passes, she will then receive credit for her first year of study. First year of law school, you have to cover three subjects: criminal law, torts, and contracts, Kim explained to the magazine. To me, torts is the most confusing, contracts the most boring, and criminal law I can do in my sleep. Took my first test, I got a 100. Super easy for me. The reading is what really gets me. Its so time-consuming. The concepts I grasp in two seconds, she said. Last year, the celebrity met with President Donald Trump in the White House to ask him to pardon Johnson, who was serving life in prison for drug conspiracy and money laundering. She learned of the womans story in early 2018 and contacted Trumps daughter, Ivanka Trump, who connected Kardashian with her husband, Jared Kushnerwho was working on a prison reform initiative at the time. Trump eventually commuted Johnsons sentence after Kardashians intervention. Matt Gaetz Introduces Resolution to Remove Adam Schiff From House Intel Committee Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz unveiled his new resolution targeting House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for his handling of the Russian collusion theory, during Tucker Carlsons Wednesday show. The resolution, titled Preventing Extreme Negligence with Classified Information Licenses Resolutionor Pencil Actcalls for Schiffs resignation from the committee. The acronym is a reference to pencil neck, which is President Donald Trumps recent nickname for Schiff. Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congressman Adam Schiff should be removed from the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House and that his security clearance should be revoked immediately, the resolution begins. Whereas Congressman Adam Schiff is the Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives. WATCH: I have filed legislation today, sent to the House, that Adam Schiff needs to be removed from the Intelligence Committee, because how are the rest of us supposed to be able to rely on a man, who you just showed, lied to the American people when he said that there was not spying? Or when he lied and said that there was actual evidence of collusion or clear evidence of collusion? Gaetz began. If Adam Schiff is able to review covert operations and intelligence, and if we have to rely on his representation, our whole system is broken, he continued. It would be like putting Lori Loughlin in charge of the college board. It would be like putting Jussie Smollett in charge of the hate crime of the FBI. #BREAKING: Today I filed the PENCIL Act, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congressman Adam Schiff should be removed from the House Intelligence Committee and his security clearance immediately revoked. pic.twitter.com/1FsMt6NUjr Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) April 11, 2019 As Gaetz referenced, Schiff has faced significant heat since special counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation and filed his report. Attorney General William Barr relayed to Congress a summary of the report, which concluded that the presidents 2016 campaign did not conspire with Russia. Back in March 2017, Schiff claimed he had seen more than circumstantial evidence of collusion. The nine Republicans on the House Intel Committee sent a letter to Schiff at the end of March that called for him to step down, alleging that he was exposed as having abused his position to knowingly promote false information, having damaged the integrity of this Committee, and undermined faith in U.S. government institutions. By Mike Brest | Reporter Follow Mike on Twitter A Chinese citizen shows his ID card and bank book at a branch of Bank of China in Sanya City, Hainan Province, China, on May 5, 2008. (Feng Li/Getty Images) New China ID Card to Track DNA Info, Location, and More, Media Reports Say Chinese media reports of a new identification card for citizens has generated much discussion on the internetdue to the amount of information that will reportedly be stored on it. Although several police stations have since tried to quell public concern by saying the media reports are merely rumors, netizens are still commenting on the topic on popular social media platforms such as Weibo and WeChat. Third-Generation ID Card The idea of upgrading the cards, which are used by all Chinese citizens, was first proposed by Huang Guangmiao, a member of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body, in March 2011. Official government websites indicate that the new ID card is still in the design phase. But since April 9, many Chinese media have begun reporting on the cards new technological features, noting that authorities will soon roll out the new ID. News portal Sohu reported that the new card has several new functions, including an embedded GPS module that will track the cardholders geographic location at all times. The report explained that the feature can help police find the card if its misplaced or lost. The card also will integrate the functions of ones banking card, credit card, social security card, and retailers loyalty or membership card into an all-in-one tool. Ones fingerprints, which are already stored on the current ID cards, can be used for verification purposes when making electronic payments with the new ID card. The card will also store ones biometric data, such as blood type and DNA information. The Sohu report explained that this feature can assist police in investigating criminal cases, as well as hospitals that may be seeking a matching organ donor. Such an all-encompassing card calls to mind Chinas social credit system, which assigns scores for all Chinese citizens public behavior. The scores are recorded under each citizens ID number, making it easy for police to see ones social credit score upon scanning a card. Someone with a low credit score could be barred from taking public transportation or staying in hotels. Hundreds have been blocked from boarding airplanes because of low credit scores. The media reports on the new ID card have prompted a public uproar. The state-run China Youth Daily reported on April 10 that the new ID card wont have a GPS function, citing information obtained from authoritative official channels. As for the other functions, Chinese authorities havent made any official responses addressing them. Chinas ID Card System After the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, the country didnt initially implement an ID card system. People used family records or obtained an official letter from local authorities if they needed to verify their identity. In 1984, China rolled out the first-generation ID card, a black-and-white polyester film-wrapped paper card; but the card could be easily damaged and copied. In January 2004, the Chinese regime upgraded that to a non-contact card with an embedded chip that stores the owners photo and his or her 10 fingerprints. Authorities frequently check peoples ID cards for entry into trains, buses, and hotels. As a result, dissidents and many ethnic minorities who are closely monitored by the Chinese regime often cant travel without being detected by police. To make travel possible, many turn to the black market for fake identification cards. Michael Avenatti Could Face 330 Years in Prison, Report Says Celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti could face more than 330 years in prison after he was charged with 36 counts, including tax violations, embezzlement, and fraud. Avenatti, 48, was indicted by a grand jury in Southern California on a slew of other charges after he was arrested last month in New York, reported The Associated Press. CBS News, meanwhile, reported that he could face more than 300 years behind bars if he is convicted of all the charges. Any claim that any monies due clients were mishandled is bogus nonsense. By way of example only (there are MANY more like this), here is a document Mr. Johnson signed less than a month ago attesting to my ethics and how his case was handled. I look forward to proving my innocence pic.twitter.com/tWL1aIuPy0 Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 11, 2019 If convicted of the 36 crimes alleged in the indictment, Mr. Avenatti would face a statutory maximum sentence of 333 years in federal prison plus a mandatory two-year consecutive term for an identity theft count, said an official in the CBS video. A jet co-owned by Avenatti, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, was seized on April 10 as part of an investigation, AP reported. These four areas of criminal conduct alleged in the indictment are all linked to one another because money generated from one set of crimes appears in other setstypically in the form of payments to lull victims and to prevent Mr. Avenattis financial house of cards from collapsing, U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna told AP. I intend to fully fight all charges and plead NOT GUILTY. I look forward to the entire truth being known as opposed to a one-sided version meant to sideline me. Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 11, 2019 Hanna added that the high-powered lawyer received money on behalf of clients and simply took the money to finance his businesses and his personal expenses, reported the Los Angeles Times. Avenatti is possibly best known for representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits. On Twitter, the lawyer said he intend[s] to fully fight all charges and plead NOT GUILTY. I look forward to the entire truth being known as opposed to a one-sided version meant to sideline me. Later, he added that any claim that any monies due clients were mishandled is bogus nonsense. Michael Avenatti could face more than 330 years in prison if convicted of the 36 crimes in federal indictment https://t.co/H9n7JKbYS7 pic.twitter.com/8BHNqYR0UN CBS News (@CBSNews) April 11, 2019 By way of example only (there are MANY more like this), here is a document Mr. Johnson signed less than a month ago attesting to my ethics and how his case was handled. I look forward to proving my innocence, Avenatti tweeted. According to the Los Angeles Times, Avenatti faces as many as 47 years in prison if he is convicted on charges of attempting to extort millions of dollars from Nike. Avenatti, the Times reported, is free on $300,000 bond. His lawyer, John Littrell, said an indictment means nothing. We intend to fully investigate the charges and provide Mr. Avenatti the robust defense he deserves, Littrell said. Jeanine Blankenship was last seen using an ride share service in Olive Branch, Miss., on April 2, 2019. (Jeanine Blankenship/Facebook) Missing Uber Rider Jeanine Blankenship Found Dead a Week After Trip The body of a Mississippi woman has been found more than a week after she was last seen using a ride share service. The Olive Branch Police Department confirmed on April 10 it had found Jeanine Blankenship deceased in Olive Branch, near Depot Street and Old Highway 78. Woman found dead near railroad in Olive Branchhttps://t.co/bkjuS6amDP WMC Action News 5 (@WMCActionNews5) April 10, 2019 Woman found dead in Olive Branch https://t.co/3dI5kJJufG FOX13 Memphis (@FOX13Memphis) April 10, 2019 The woman was last seen taking a one-way Uber ride on April 2 to the Old Town area where she bought a bottle of vodka. Coxs Package Store Manager Gloria Wommack confirmed she remembered seeing the female shopper buy a bottle of vodka and asked if she was okay after noticing Blankenships face was injured. She was in bad shape, so I asked her if she needed any help. She told me, no,' Wommack told WREG. I told her that she didnt look good. She said, but Im going to be okay. I just fell and hurt myself in my living room.' The manager believes the Uber driver left without knowing Blankenships cell phone and apartment keys were still in the car. She went outside and she disappeared, Wommack said. We dont know where she went, and who picked her up. The driver in question discovered the items and later turned them in to Blankenships apartment leasing office. The department has not yet revealed possible causes of death, but Blankenships former husband revealed the woman faced her own challenges. Jeanine is struggling with alcoholism, Andy Blankenship said. On Blankenships social media account she described some of her difficulties just days before she went missing. I totally messed up today. I met my ex to discuss terms of my daughter moving out. Was a nervous wreck, she said in a Facebook post dated March 28. Now its all said and done. I just woke up, I missed my meeting. What century is this? I totally messed up today. I met my ex to discuss terms of my daughter moving out. Was a nervous wreck. Now its all said & done. I just woke up!! I missed my meeting!! What century is this?? Posted by Jeanine Blankenship on Thursday, March 28, 2019 The womans friends posted tributes to her on social media. RIP, I pray they find out what happened, Heather Drury said. Prayers to your family. So sad, Candy Russell said. Police are still investigating the case. Anyone with any information is asked to phone the Olive Branch Police Department at 662 895 4111. Uber Driver Arrested for Burglary A ride-share driver was arrested on suspicion of burglarizing a house in Sacramento shortly after dropping a customer off at the airport. Jackie Gordon Wilson, 38, was working as an Uber driver when he dropped customers off at the airport on April 4, according to police. San Mateo Police Department officials said Wilson returned to the customers residence on Rand Street in San Mateo about an hour after driving the unidentified homeowner to catch a flight. The Rand Street Ring security camera showed Wilson attempting to burglarize the very home of his riders an hour after dropping them off at the airport, police said in a statement. Footage from the security camera shows a man alleged to be Wilson lurking at the front door of the home, seeming to put gloves on. Police said an alarm scared Wilson off and so instead he broke into a nearby house. Wilson was later arrested and faces multiple charges. Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek contributed to this report. More Information From Mueller Report Wont Shift Public Opinion: Poll A sizable majority of Americans said that their opinion on special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian meddling is unlikely to change, as Attorney General William Barr told lawmakers on April 9 that he intends to release a redacted version of the report within a week. The findings from a Hill-HarrisX survey of registered voters found an overwhelming 72 percent who said that more information from Muellers probe would be unlikely to make them re-think their beliefs. Meanwhile, only 28 percent said they believed their opinions could shift. Barr released a four-page letter on Muellers findings in March that said the special counsel did not find evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and Trumps campaign, or his organization. He also concluded that the special counsel didnt provide enough evidence to substantiate that the president obstructed justice. The poll also found that Democratic respondents were more likely to say that their opinions on the Russia investigation could change once more information is released. But 61 percent of Democrats doubted their views would be changed. In contrast, 85 percent of Republicans said that their opinions would be unlikely to change. The number was similar for independents where 73 percent said the same. A majority60 percent of votersalso believed that Mueller himself would have come out in public to address any false information that Barr had detailed in his letter. In contrast, 40 percent believed Mueller would have remained silent. Among Democrats, the number was more split at 53 percent, while for Republicans, 70 percent thought he would have publicly addressed it. Democrat lawmakers have insisted for the release of the full report. Barr said previously that the redactions are related to sensitive material that by law cannot be made public, material the intelligence community identifies as potentially compromising sensitive sources and methods, material that could affect other ongoing matters, including those that the special counsel has referred to other departments, and information that would impact on third parties personal privacy and reputational interests. Within a week I will be in position to release that report to the public and then I will engage with the chairmen of both judiciary committees about that report, about any further requests that they have, he said at his first appearance before Congress since receiving the report on March 22. Overall, a majority of 54 percent believed that Barr had correctly described Muellers work. The partisan fight over the summary and the release of the Mueller report is in full swing, and the findings reflect that tug of war, showing strong partisan divides, Dritan Nesho, CEO of HarrisX, said. However most voters have faith in the process and the players involved, as do coveted independents. Another majority, 53 percent of voters, also believe that some information should be redacted before it is released publicly. Meanwhile, 47 percent said it should not be redacted. The 4-point spread is just outside the surveys margin of error. The Hill-HarrisX survey was conducted online from within the United States between April 8-9 among 1000 registered voters. There is a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The results reflect a nationally representative sample of registered voters. Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 13, 2019. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images) Morrison Has Tossed the Coin, Calls Date for Federal Election Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that Australians will go to the polls on May 18 after a visit to the Governor Generals office on the morning of April 11. Morrison said there is much at stake at the election and only the coalition can deliver a strong economy and the dividends of that. This morning I visited the Governor-General to advise him to call an election on 18 May. pic.twitter.com/jEunOOBxwR Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 10, 2019 Its taken us more than five years to turn around Labors budget mess. Now is not the time to turn back, Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Thursday. The last time Labor was elected to form a Government back in 2007 they inherited a strong economy and they inherited budget surpluses. In the space of one year they turned a $20bn surplus into a $27bn deficit. They turned strong borders into weak borders. And we have spent the last more than 10 years getting back to where we were. You vote Labor once, you pay for it for a decade. Keeping our economy strong is how we secure your future and your familys future. Because of our strong economic management, we can make these investments in health without increasing taxes. Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 10, 2019 Morrison also promised that the Liberal Party has now learnt from the embarrassing recent leadership spills, saying that he is confident to lead to a full term. Thats why after I became Prime Minister we changed the rules in the Liberal Party, as you know, he said. It was the biggest change to the Liberal Partys rules since Sir Robert Menzies founded our parliamentary party here. Those rules say that at the next election on May 18, if the Liberal-National Government is returned, if Im re-elected as Prime Minister, then I will serve as Prime Minister because the rules have been changed to prevent the things that have happened in the past. The same is true of the Labor Partythey changed their rules as well. So it is crystal clear, at this election, it is a choice between me as Prime Minister and Bill Shorten as Prime Minister. You vote for me, youll get me. You vote for Bill Shorten and youll get Bill Shorten. .@ScottMorrisonMP: Its taken us five years to turn around Labors budget mess. Now is not the time to turn back. MORE: https://t.co/OpL8k5vCsb #AusVotes19 pic.twitter.com/ILsG3JYc1N Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 10, 2019 Shorten told reporters as he was on a morning run in Melbourne he was prepared for the campaign ahead. Im ready for the election, Im ready for government, he said. Good morning from Moonee Ponds! Im ready to deliver a fair go for Australia. Whos with me? pic.twitter.com/e55nEEkNgS Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) April 10, 2019 Ive got a more united, experienced team. This election will be a choice, it will be a choice about more cuts or better health care for your family. Neither major party is expected to win majority control of the Senate, with half of the 76-seat upper house up for grabs. After a national redrawing of seat boundaries, the coalition starts with a notional 73 seats (down from 74) with Labor on 72 (up from 69). By Paul Osborne Raniya Wright died two days after the fight at Forest Hills Elementary School in Walterboro, Colleton County School District officials said. (Ash Write/Facebook Via CNN) Mother of Girl Who Died After School Fight Says Shed Complained of Bullying in the Past The mother of Raniya Wright, the Walterboro, South Carolina, girl who died after a classroom fight, says Raniyas friends told her that a bully had been baiting the 10-year-old into a fight and caused her to hit her head on a bookshelf before she died. Speaking to Good Morning America on April 8, Ashley Wright said she had complained to Forest Hills Elementary School in the past about the girl involved in the altercation. I notified the school and I also spoke with her teacher at the time about this same person, she told the morning show. She would just always come home saying this one girl picking on her. Wright told the teacher she was leaving it in her hands to do something about it, but when Raniya got home, she said her teacher hadnt raised the issue. The mother further told GMA she had been complaining about the girl since Raniya was in the fourth grade, and Raniyas grandmother, who gets the kids ready for school while Wright is working, said Raniya had been asking to stay home from school the last couple of weeks, ABC reported. My frustration is really towards the school system because I sent my child to school feeling like she can be protected while shes not in my care anymore, Wright said, according to ABC. DEMANDING ANSWERS: The family of Raniya Wright is demanding answers after the fifth grader died following a fight inside her South Carolina classroom, with authorities yet to release an official cause of death. @ztkiesch with the @ABC exclusive. https://t.co/ZBJ2KuBr5x pic.twitter.com/Hbcgn2W0PN World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) April 8, 2019 Though school officials have released sparse details about the circumstances leading to Raniyas death, Ashley Wright said that her daughters classmates told her the bully had been bothering Niya all day, wanting to fight her. They were in the class, the mother said. The girl came up behind her and was hitting her all in the head. How long, I dont know. She pushed her or rammed her head or something into the bookshelf. Raniya had no prior health issues, Wright said. School officials said there were no weapons involved in the March 25 fight. Sen. Margie Bright Matthews (D-Walterboro) issued an apology Monday, saying she never "intended to minimize or trivialize" the incidents leading up to Raniya Wright's death when she made the comments in this video. STORY: https://t.co/l1e8iT2KO7#chsnews #RaniyaWright pic.twitter.com/yAkS6zj3dQ ABC News 4 (@ABCNews4) April 8, 2019 The school nurse called the mother around lunchtime, Wright told GMA, and told her that Raniya had been in an accident, a fight. She was OK, the nurse told her, but she was complaining about dizziness and having a headache, Wright recalled. She didnt get a call back when Raniyas condition worsened, she said. Wright arrived at the hospital to find her daughter unresponsive and hooked up to machines, she said. I had to sleep by my baby the night before she passed, and that was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, she said. Its just hard. Officials said they stopped the fight, and Raniya was taken to the school nurses station. She was unconscious when paramedics arrived, and they took her to a nearby hospital, according to a sheriffs office report. She was later airlifted to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where she died two days after the fight. From the state Senate podium last week, Sen. Margie Bright Matthews of Walterboro said shes spoken to officialsincluding the substitute teacher in chargeand wanted to correct rumors surrounding Raniyas death. Ive heard a lot of people say, Oh, they were kicking her. They ganged her. None of that. Thats so far from the truthnot even the banging of (her) head. The head was not even an issue, she said. Mark Peper, an attorney for the girls father, responded, We are still awaiting official disclosures from the school district, police department and all other public entities, none of whom have provided our client with any pertinent information to date. If the events alleged by the senator, April 9, turn out to be factual, so be it, but our client deserves to know what happened to his daughter in a timely fashion. Father of Raniya Wright spoke briefly at press conference this morning. His attorneys said the school district has still released no information about last weeks fight. pic.twitter.com/8yrQguimOx Brodie Hart (@BrodieHart) April 1, 2019 A law firm representing Wright said, We are disappointed that Sen. Matthews would use the South Carolina Senate as the backdrop for her statements less than 24 hours before Raniya Wright is laid to rest. Sean Gruber, a spokesman for the Colleton County School District, has declined to provide details, saying the district will not comment until police investigators release their findings. We realize and appreciate that people want to know exactly what happened in this incident. However, it is important for us as a school district to make sure that the Colleton County Sheriffs Offices thorough investigation, relying on all of the facts available, is concluded before we comment publicly. A student was suspended, but its unclear if the student was involved in the fight. Dozens of mourners stood outside a South Carolina church as the horse-drawn carriage with Raniyas casket arrived April 10 for a celebration of life at Walterboros Saints Center Ministries. Your wings were ready, but our hearts were not, said a message on the carriages windows. By Eliott C. McLaughlin Pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion demonstrators displaying their signs in the lobby of the Georgia State Capitol building during the 35th legislative day at the Georgia State Capitol building in downtown Atlanta, on March 22, 2019. (Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/File via AP) Ohio Legislature Sends Heartbeat Abortion Bill to Governors Desk The Ohio General Assembly passed a bill banning abortions in the presence of a fetal heartbeat and sent it to the governors desk for approval. The bill passed the House Wednesday in a 56-39 vote, shortly after which the state Senate voted 18-13 to approve House changes to the bill, the Dayton Daily News reported. Physicians could face fines up to $20,000 if they violate the law. A heartbeat usually becomes detectable between six and nine weeks in pregnancy. The bill advanced through the Ohio House Health Committee Tuesday. (RELATED: Ohio Rep Proposes Heartbeat Bill Exemption For Black Women, Cites Slavery) The heartbeat bill essentially prohibits all abortions, according to a maternal fetal medicine specialist, Dr. Michael Cackovic of Ohio State University Medical Center, The Associated Press reported. Youre going to be doing more procedures and subjecting women to more procedures and medications to get abortions, because theyre rushing between that four and five weeks to get it accomplished, Cackovic said. Democratic state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan also expressed worry over the bill. Im concerned that we will have companies that will choose not to locate here due to our oppressive laws. Im concerned that doctors will leave the state of Ohio, she said, according to the AP. Republican state Rep. Candice Keller applauded the move, calling the legislation the most compassionate bill weve ever passed, the AP reported. Pro-life groups also applauded the bills passage. Since 1973, countless unborn children have lost their lives to abortion in Ohio. Thanks to the compassion and commitment of the Ohio General Assembly, the Buckeye State will end this atrocity, Citizens for Community Values President Aaron Baer said in a statement. CCV is a pro-life group that advocates for public policy reflecting the truth of the Gospel, according to its Twitter. Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has 10 days to sign, veto or allow the bill to take effect without a signature. He has previously signaled he will sign the legislation. Former Republican Gov. John Kasich vetoed heartbeat bills in 2016 and 2018. Heartbeat bills are spreading across our nation! Share the fantastic news! pic.twitter.com/1542kqH1Xc Live Action (@LiveAction) April 8, 2019 Governors in Arkansas, North Dakota, Iowa, Mississippi and Kentucky have signed bills outlawing abortion in the presence of a fetal heartbeat. Many of the abortion bans, however, have remained ineffective following court orders prohibiting enforcement, Cleveland.com reported. By Grace Carr | Reporter Follow Grace on Twitter. Oklahoma Woman Adopted at 2 Days Old, Reunites With Birth Family 27 Years Later in Chicago The content is not available due to expiration. Chula, a roughly 8-year-old American pit bull terrier mix at the Humane Society of Port Jervis and Deerpark on Jan. 5, 2016. (Holly Kellum/Epoch Times) Pit Bull Owner Charged After Dog Attacks 5 Year Old HAMILTON, OhioThe owner of a pit bull is facing charges after the dog attacked a 5-year-old girl, fracturing her jaw and opening several wounds on her face, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said April 9. The attack happened Saturday on Millikin Street in Hamilton, Jones said. The pit bull was previously labeled as a dangerous dog by Butler Countys dog wardens following a separate attack on a child in September 2018. Its owner, 37-year-old Justin Iceman, was charged with failing to confine a dangerous dog and failure to notify the dog warden of the attacktwo misdemeanor offenses. The dog is scheduled to be euthanized, Jones said, because it was upgraded from a dangerous dog to a vicious dog. This little girl was minding her own business when this dog broke the leash and attacked her, Jones said in a written statement. The girl is expected to make a full recovery but will need continued medical care. I am glad that she is expected to be fine but fear this will have a lasting impression on her, the sheriff said. We dont know what prompted the attack, but this dog obviously should not be around people. Texas Woman Mauled to Death by Pet Pit Bulls In another pit bull attack, a Texas woman has died after being mauled by her two pet pit bulls at an Irving veterinary facility, according to police. Johana Villafane, 33, was attacked while attending to her two dogs in an outside exercise area at the OConnor Animal Hospital in Irving on the morning of Saturday, March 23, police told WFAA. The dogs were involved in an incident earlier in the month in which they bit someone, said Irving PD Officer David Dickinson, as reported by Fox4. They were here at the animal hospital being quarantined per regulations. Deputies were called to the veterinary facility to assist paramedics responding to reports of a woman in need of medical attention, Irving Police said in a news release on Facebook. 2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Pit Bulls Attack, Kill Owner While She Visited Her Dogs in Bite Quarantine Facility #Irving #Texas https://t.co/pZvWhy6HxS pic.twitter.com/Fd3Kcvjfzs DogsBite.org (@dogsbite) March 24, 2019 OConnor staff had called 911 saying a dog owner had been mauled and appeared to be seriously injured. Both paramedics and staff tried to rescue the woman but were prevented from reaching the victim because of the aggressive behavior of the pit bull terriers. They were unable to retrieve her to give her any medical attention because of the animals, Irving Police officer David Dickinson told WFAA. The aggressive dogs also kept the responding officers at bay until one of the deputies shot them both dead. Due to the dogs continued aggression, an officer discharged his duty weapon, striking and killing both dogs, police said in the statement. I dont believe that [the officer who shot the dogs] had a choice, Dickinson told WFAA. His job is to intervene to safeguard human life, and thats what he attempted to do. Woman dies after pit bulls maul her at Irving clinic and are shot by police https://t.co/BCeV8VVmTt DogsBite.org (@dogsbite) March 23, 2019 The victim was taken to Parkland Hospital with life-threatening injuries, where she later died, according to Fox4. Its just unbelievable, Villafanes neighbor Rick Warner told WFAA. It doesnt matter the breed when that happens, if an animal gets that kind of reactive, they call it the red zone and nothing is going to take it off except for extreme force. Irving Police said the investigation is ongoing. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did a study in the mid-90s into dog bite-related deaths, attributing the highest number of dog-bite-related fatalities between 1979 and 1996 to pit bulls. DogsBite.orgs fatality report identified breeds of dogs involved in U.S. attacks between 2005 and 2017, with pit bulls being implicated in 66 percent of all fatal attacks. Studies linking breed types to numbers of attack are highly controversial, however, due to different factors affecting the numbers. Measures for Preventing Dog Bites The CDC study outlined things people could do to minimize the chances of being bitten by a dog. Advice includes never approaching an unfamiliar dog, avoiding direct eye contact, and never disturbing a dog that is sleeping, eating, or caring for puppies. The Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek contributed to this article. Geoffrey Rush leaves court with his wife Jane Menelaus on November 9, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. Geoffrey Rush is suing The Daily Telegraph for defamation over a series of articles that were published in late November and early December 2017 that alleged he behaved inappropriate during a 2015 stage production of King Lear. (Jessica Hromas/Getty Images) Geoffrey Rush Wins Defamation Case Over Sensationalist Articles Geoffrey Rush was defamed in a recklessly irresponsible piece of sensationalist journalism accusing him of inappropriate behaviour, a Sydney judge has ruled. The 67-year-old Oscar-winning actor sued the Daily Telegraphs publisher and journalist Jonathon Moran over two stories and a poster published in late 2017. In Sydneys Federal Court on April 11, Justice Michael Wigney found Rush had been defamed and awarded him at least $850,000 in damages. Geoffrey #Rush arrives at the Federal Court for a decision in his defamation case. @9NewsSyd pic.twitter.com/zh51g6kotf Kelly Fedor (@KellyFedor) April 11, 2019 Nationwide and Moran published defamatory imputations and did not make out their defence of substantial truth, the judge said. The Telegraph publications related to an allegation Rush behaved inappropriately toward a co-starlater revealed to be Eryn Jean Norvillduring a Sydney Theatre Company production of King Lear. Justice Wigney on Thursday said he wasnt persuaded Norvills evidence was credible or reliable while he accepted Rushs testimony. Rush and Norvill were both in court to hear the decision. Eryn Jean Norvill arrives for the judgement in Geoffrey Rush defamation case @7NewsSydney pic.twitter.com/zHNSQMPiRf Alex Hart (@alexhart7) April 11, 2019 The judge ruled Rush was entitled to aggravated damages of $850,000. A further hearing will be held on May 10 to consider special damages for his economic loss. That figure could run into many millions of dollars. Justice Wigney said the conduct of the Telegraph and Moran in publishing the first defamatory article on November 30 in 2017 was improper and unjustified. Those articles were published in an extravagant, excessive and sensationalist manner, he said. Nationwide and Moran were reckless as to the truth or falsity of the imputations they in fact conveyed. Geoffrey Rush wins defamation case against News Corp. I wonder how #Greens Senator Sarah hanson Young now feels about her statement made about Mr Rush.#auspol pic.twitter.com/cclaWLcVVd Left of Labor (@Left_of_Labor) April 11, 2019 Justice Wigney said it was a recklessly irresponsible piece of sensationalist journalism of the worst kindthe very worst kind. It was difficult to avoid the conclusion that the articleheadlined King Leerwas calculated to damage, the judge said, adding the impact on Rush was devastating. Justice Wigneys judgment in the Geoffrey Rush case begins with multiple long quotes of King Lear. The full judgment is over 200 pages long. He told the court to read it all so you can fully appreciate the reasons. pic.twitter.com/hPl6mTtLCq Naaman Zhou (@naamanzhou) April 11, 2019 Norvill was a defence witness in last years trial, telling the court Rush deliberately stroked the side of her breast during a preview performance when her character was dead onstage. It couldnt have been an accident because it was slow and pressured, she said. He also stroked Norvills lower back backstage, made groping gestures toward her during rehearsal and would sometimes growl and call her yummy, she alleged. Rush said it was possible he used the word yummywhich had a spirit to itbut otherwise denied the allegations, saying that he thought he and Norvill had enjoyed a very sparky, congenial rapport. He became emotional when he said that to perform the death scene, he imagined it was my own real-life daughter and that shed been hit by a bus on the street near where we live and I knew she was gone. Outside court, Geoffrey Rush thanked his wife and children and said there are no winners in this case. Michaela Whitbourn (@MWhitbourn) April 11, 2019 He said the months following the publication of the articles had been the worst of his life. By Jodie Stephens U.S. investor and founder of the Baring Vostok private equity group Michael Calvey, who was detained on suspicion of fraud, leaves the court after his hearing in Moscow on April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov Russia Frees US Investor From Jail in Closely Watched Case A Moscow court released American private equity manager Michael Calvey to house arrest after two months in jail in a case that has shaken the nerves of foreign investors who remain in Russia. The Basmanny Court judge at a hearing April 11 granted a motion from investigators that Calvey, who built Baring Vostok Capital Partners into one of the countrys biggest investment funds, be moved to house arrest. The sudden shift in the authorities position came after a chorus of criticism of Calveys jailing from Russian officials and business leaders. But several other Baring Vostok executives linked to the case, including Russian nationals and a French citizen, had their detentions extended by three months earlier this week. Investigators justified the move saying that circumstances had changed since they asked to have Calvey jailed in February, citing affidavits filed by prominent supporters, as well as his charity work and ownership of real estate in Russia. The judge ordered him held under house arrest until April 13, but investigators filed a motion late April 11 to extend it for two more months, according to Interfax. Michael simply said that as long as his colleagues are under arrest he doesnt have a reason to celebrate, his lawyer Dmitry Savochkin told reporters after the ruling. Good Sign Some Russian officials were more sanguine, with Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin issuing a statement that the move to house arrest was a good sign for the investment climate. Baring Vostok is suspected by Russian authorities of stealing 2.5 billion rubles ($39 million) from Bank Vostochny, a local lender the fund controls. The defendants deny wrongdoing and blame the prosecution on a corporate conflict with the other large shareholders in Vostochny, including a prominent local businessman with ties to the Kremlin and the security services. In a sign that the investigation is continuing, Vostochnys former chief executive Alexei Kordichev was moved to house arrest from jail after he admitted guilt and agreed to testify against the other defendants in the case, Interfax reported April 11, citing a court document. Calvey will be barred from using the internet or speaking to the media under the terms of house arrest, which also require him to wear a monitoring bracelet and remain in his Moscow apartment. Calveys release is a step in the right direction toward restoring the damage done to Russias investment climate, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the countrys sovereign wealth fund and one of those who spoke out on his behalf, said after the ruling. I will continue efforts to soften the measure of restraints for other BVCP employees who are still in custody. Shareholder Dispute Speaking from the glass defendants cage before the decision, Calvey accused the other shareholders of seeking to stop an additional share issue at the bank that would dilute their stakes. If control over the bank goes to our partners, it cant be excluded that they will siphon more assets from it, he said. Bank Vostochny, a top-40 lender, has been hamstrung by the investor dispute. A 10 percent stake held by Baring Vostok has been frozen by a Russian court due to the fraud case and a central bank-mandated recapitalization has also stumbled. This week, the bank announced and then canceled a supervisory board meeting scheduled for April 10 to discuss acting chief executive Alexander Nesterenkos removal. Calvey and several other officials from his fund are charged with overvaluing assets contributed to the bank. They blame the prosecution on the conflict with Russian investor Artem Avetisyan and an ally, who filed the criminal complaint that led to their arrest. The two sides are also fighting a legal battle in London, where Baring Vostok has accused the other investors of stripping assets from a bank they controlled before it was merged with Vostochny. The Russian investors have denied those allegations. Calvey, 51, an Oklahoma native, founded Moscow-based Baring Vostok in 1994 and the fund has raised $3.7 billion in total capital since then. It controls 52 percent of Vostochny, while Avetisyan and his allies hold 37 percent. Despite the corporate conflict, which has turned into a criminal prosecution, I still believe in the investment potential of Russia, Calvey said at the court before the ruling. By Irina Reznik & Jake Rudnitsky Santa Clara County May Revise Sanctuary Policy in Light of Homicide SAN JOSE, Calif.A recent homicide in San Jose that was allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant has sparked debate over the sanctuary policy of Santa Clara County. Carlos Arevalo Carranza is accused of stabbing Bambi Larson to death in her home on Feb. 28 in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood of South San Jose. Police say Arevalo Carranza was caught on a surveillance camera walking down a street around 4:30 a.m. He entered the home where Larson, 59, lived alone with her cat and dog. According to police, he stabbed Larson to death, leaving her body on the bedroom floor covered in blood. Her body was later found by her son and a coworker. Arevalo Carranza, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant who has had multiple arrests and detention requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has been convicted of more than 10 crimes in the past three years in Los Angeles and Santa Clara County. His crimes include burglary, battery of an officer, prowling and trespassing, and possession of methamphetamine, but he evaded immigration authorities on multiple occasions. District 10 City Councilmember Johnny Khamis spoke with The Epoch Times about the impact this murder case has had on the local San Jose community. They were very scared at first. Now that the person has been apprehended, they feel a lot safer, said Khamis. Police were able to arrest Arevalo Carranza 11 days after the murder. Khamis said part of the reason Arevalo Carranza has been set free each time after committing a crime lies in the current laws related to criminal activity and the countys sanctuary policies. Theres a lot of problems with our laws. Our laws have swung too far to the side of the criminal with laws like Prop. 47 and 57 and 36. They have made violent felonies into nonviolent felonies and have allowed felons to serve a very short amount of time in prison, said Khamis. Proposition 47 stipulates certain crimes, including what had been drug possession felonies, be treated as misdemeanors. Proposition 57, among other items, allows parole consideration for nonviolent felons. Proposition 36 allows qualifying defendants convicted of drug possession to receive a probationary sentence. Arevalo Carranza had been charged for multiple crimes in the past, but was released from prison each time without the release being coordinated with immigration authorities. Eleven law enforcement agencies and our district attorney have written a letter asking the county to reexamine their policy and make it closer to the statewide policy, which is a sanctuary policy but does not apply for violent criminals, Khamis said. SB-54, also known as the California Values Act, makes California a sanctuary state by limiting how much local law enforcement can cooperate with federal authorities to enforce immigration law. However, the statewide law states that cooperation with ICE immigration authorities should be followed if the individual has been convicted of a serious or violent felony. Well, our police are pretty upset that they actually catch these criminalsin that last case [with Larson], they caught [Arevalo Carranza] six timesand the legal system allows them to leave jail very quickly, and so the police are very concerned that they are doing their job; its just the justice system isnt doing theirs, said Khamis. Khamis said San Jose doesnt have control over the jails, as the jails are run by Santa Clara County. As such, these laws and policies are a countywide issue. Policy Revision In light of the recent murder case, Supervisor Dave Cortese recently proposed changes to the way Santa Clara County notifies federal law enforcement about the release of violent felons from jail. In 2011, Santa Clara County adopted an ordinance that allows the county to refuse requests from ICE to hold noncitizens in jail beyond their sentence for immigration agents to deport them. This sanctuary county policy allows undocumented individuals to be released from jail without notifying ICE. Additionally, the policy asks ICE to provide written criminal warrants to gain access to undocumented individuals. Now Cortese plans to ask county officials to work with law enforcement agencies and community leaders to craft policy amendments, in which ICE would be notified of inmates convicted of violent felonies and have sufficient time to obtain arrest warrants before a serious offender is released from jail. Similarly, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo criticized Santa Clara Countys sanctuary policy in a March statement. It is long overdue for the County to reconsider its current policy of ignoring ICE hold requests for predatory felons, which undermines the safety of the very immigrant communities we collectively seek to protect, Liccardo stated. Chris Patterson saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at First Interstate Center for the Arts at Spokane, Washington, on April 9, 2019. (NTD Television) SPOKANE, WashingtonShen Yun Performing Arts is a traditional dance and music company that is not afraid to stand up for what is right in the midst of pressure and opposition. Through about 20 vignettes of dances and stories, the New York-based company takes theatergoers on a journey through Chinas 5,000 years of civilization and history, even to parts of history the current communist regime does not want the world to see. This aspect of the performance has intrigued many audience members, just like Chris Patterson, who is the director of business solutions at Food Services of America. The last one before the break really stuck out to me and that was about the religious freedom and the ongoing persecution thats going on right now in China. So that really hits me kind of hard, Patterson said, referring to the dance Goodness in the Face of Evil, a piece that tells the story of a girl who is persecuted for her faith in the spiritual practice Falun Gong. Many audience members are surprised to learn that a great number of Chinese people are still being persecuted for their faith, despite the communist regimes appearance of modernization and opening up to the West. Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, teaches the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance, where adherents seek to orient themselves toward self-betterment, taking responsibility, and putting others first. The practice has helped over 100 million Chinese people today understand and return to the essence of traditional Chinese culture. But the Chinese regime banned the practice in 1999 and has since continued to systematically persecute Falun Gong adherents in China. People who are caught practicing the discipline in China face severe persecution, including torture, imprisonment, and even death. Every year, Shen Yun includes stories that depict the devastating persecution. These stories portray values that are foundational to traditional Chinese culture like benevolence of the divine and good and evil retribution and are not political in nature. Instead, these pieces try to inspire audience members to reflect on themselves and the world around them, like Patterson. I think we always need to work towards the freedom of the mind for all people. I think thats an important thing for everyone to work for and I appreciate seeing that there, Patterson said. Were people that want to be a part of the culture, people that want to be free. I love that. I love that and I think it empowers us to have conversations about it, for sure, he added. Meanwhile, Patterson said Shen Yuns portrayal of Chinas minority groups like the Mongolians through ethnic and folk dance allowed him to see the common threads and themes in all cultures. [Its] because I can hear kind of the American West theme in that, even though its Mongolian plains. It had a similar kind of field so I think that helps connect all of us, he said, adding that these pieces were inspiring and energizing. Patterson said he would come back another time to see Shen Yun again, adding that it was worth the experience. You have to go. Its worth it. Its absolutely worth your time and energy and effort, and I wouldnt even hesitate about going to this show. Its fabulous, he said. With reporting by NTD Television. The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006. Members of the Sudanese security forces wave their national flag and flash the "V" for victory sign in the capital Khartoum on April 11, 2019. (-/AFP/Getty Images) Sudans Bashir Overthrown in Military Coup After 30 Years in Power NAIROBI, KenyaAfter three decades in power, Sudans President Hassan Omar al-Bashir was overthrown by a military coup amid widespread protests that started in 2018. Sudanese state television quoted Defense Minister Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf as saying a transitional military council would oversee a two-year transitional period until elections are held. As pressure mounted on Bashir to leave power in recent months, almost 50 people were killed in a series of protests that erupted in December 2018, according to local media reports. Hassan Hajji Ali, a professor of political science at the University of Khartoum, said the mood in the northern African country remained tense with mixed reactions. Some of the protesters have rejected the military move and are calling for a civilian government to be put in place, he said in a telephone interview from the Sudanese capital. There are those who have said they will continue with the sit-in, he said, adding that the military council has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew and suspended the constitution. Amnesty International Secretary General Kumi Naidoo termed the days events as historic for Sudan. Todays events should also serve as a wake-up call to leaders around the world who think they can get away with denying people their basic rights, he said in a statement. But while many Sudanese people will be delighted by the end of Bashirs deeply repressive 30-year rule, we are alarmed by the raft of emergency measures announced today, Naidoo added. Reacting to the news, Kenneth Roth, executive director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said it is not enough that President Bashir has been ousted. His countless victims, and the need to establish the rule of law and signal an end to mass atrocities, demand that he be sent to the International Criminal Court to face the charges against him, he added. Bashir, who had ruled Sudan since 1989 after staging a military coup, is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges related to atrocities in the Darfur region. Human-rights groups have urged Sudanese authorities to turn Bashir and three others officials over to the Hague-based court to face justice. Demonstrations in the Horn of African country began in December 2018 and intensified on April 6, as the Sudanese people continued to demand political change. Thousands of protesters began a sit-in at the militarys headquarters in Khartoum on April 6; and police and security forces used force to try to disperse the demonstrators who were calling for Bashir to step down. The UK, the United States, and Norway issued a joint statement on Aril 9 reacting to the current unrest in Sudan. The time has come for the Sudanese authorities to respond to these popular demands in a serious and credible way, read the statement. During the protests, Amnesty International said all social-media platforms were jammed and phone signals around the military headquarters were noticeably weakened. Authorities in Khartoum had also cut the supply of water to the area. The latest protests were called to mark the 34th anniversary of the toppling of former President Jaafar Muhammad Nimeirys government by the Sudan Armed Forces in response to a popular uprising in Sudan, as well as to protest against the current government. Thousands of protesters responded to the call and gathered in front of Sudans army headquarters, calling for the removal of Bashirs government. The countrys economic crisis has been exacerbated by the secession in 2011 of oil-rich South Sudan, denying Khartoum a large portion of oil revenue. Our intimacy with our devices comes at the expense of connecting with those around us.(Kevin Grieve/Unsplash) The Dying Art of ConversationHas Technology Killed Our Ability to Talk Face-to-Face? Devices and apps can help us communicate around the globe, but they are blocking our direct connection to those nearby FaceTime, Skype, WhatsApp, and Snapchat, have replaced significant amounts of face-to-face conversation for many people. These apps allow us to converse with each other quickly and easilyovercoming distances, time zones, and countries. We can even talk to virtual assistants such as Alexa, Cortana, or Siricommanding them to play our favorite songs, films, or tell us the weather forecast. These ways of communicating reduce the need to speak to another human being. This has led to some of the conversational snippets of our daily lives now taking place mainly via technological devices. So no longer do we need to talk with shop assistants, receptionists, bus drivers, or even coworkers, we simply engage with a screen to communicate whatever it is we want to say. In fact, in these scenarios, we tend to only speak to other people when digital technology doesnt operate successfully. For instance, human contact occurs when we call for an assistant to help us when an item is not recognized at the self-service checkout. And when we have the ability to connect so quickly and easily with others using devices and applications, it is easy to start to overlook the value of face-to-face conversation. It seems easier to text someone rather than meet with them. Bodily Cues My research into digital technologies indicates that phrases such as word of mouth or keeping in touch point to the importance of face-to-face conversation. Indeed, face-to-face conversation can strengthen social ties: with our neighbors, friends, work colleagues, and other people we encounter during our day. It acknowledges their existence, their humanness, in ways that instant messaging and texting do not. Face-to-face conversation is a rich experience that involves drawing on memories, making connections, making mental images, associations and choosing a response. Face-to-face conversation is also multisensory: its not just about sending or receiving pre-programmed trinkets such as likes, cartoon love hearts, and grinning yellow emojis. When having a conversation using video you mainly see another persons face only as a flat image on a screen. But when we have a face-to-face conversation in real life, we can look into someones eyes, reach out and touch them. We can also observe the other persons body posture and the gestures they use when speakingand interpret these accordingly. All these factors, contribute to the sensory intensity and depth of the face-to-face conversations we have in daily life. Speaking to Machines Sherry Turkle, professor of social studies of science and technology, warns that when we first speak through machines, [we] forget how essential face-to-face conversation is to our relationships, our creativity, and our capacity for empathy. But then we take a further step and speak not just through machines but to machines. In many ways, our everyday lives now involve a blend of face-to-face and technologically mediated forms of communication. But in my teaching and research, I explain how digital forms of communication can supplement, rather than replace face-to-face conversation. At the same time though, it is also important to acknowledge that some people value online communication because they can express themselves in ways they might find difficult through face-to-face conversation. Look Up From Your Phone Gary Turk is a spoken word poet whose poem Look Up illustrates what is at stake by becoming entranced by technological ways of communicating at the expense of connecting with others face-to-face. Turks poem draws attention to the rich, sensory aspects of face-to-face communication, valuing bodily presence in relation to friendship, companionship, and intimacy. The central idea running through Turks evocative poem is that screen-based devices consume our attention while distancing us from the bodily sense of being with others. Ultimately the sound, touch, smell, and observation of bodily cues we experience when having a face-to-face conversation cannot be fully replaced by our technological devices. Communicating and connecting with others through face-to-face discussion is valuable because it is not something that can be edited, paused or replayed. So next time youre deciding between human or machine at the supermarket checkout or whether to get up from your desk and walk to another office to talk to a colleaguerather than sending them an emailit might be worth following Turks advice and engaging with the human rather than the screen. Melanie Chan is a senior lecturer in media, communication, and culture at Leeds Beckett University in the UK. This article was first published on The Conversation. Toddler Survives Fall From Sixth-Floor Apartment Window in Seattle A toddler fell out of a sixth-floor apartment window in Seattle but survived because he landed on top of a car, leaving a dent. The 20-month-old boy was hospitalized on April 10 with serious injuries, reported Fox news. Authorities told the news outlet that the toddler appeared to have propped himself up against a window as he stood on a mattress pad, and fallen out of the Redmond Square apartments around 5 p.m. The window was only about one foot from the floor. The boys mother was in another room, and was alerted by the screams of the boys 4-year-old sister, Redmond Police Public Information Officer James Perry told Fox. Police arrived to find the boy was alive and cryingthanks to a blue Mazda, whose owner had thankfully decided to bike to work that day, leaving it in the parking bay. Its about 60 to 70 feet; if the car hadnt been there this wouldve been a completely different story, Perry said. The denting on top of the car suggests it absorbed a lot of the impact from the child. Most of the windows of the apartment building look out over the sidewalk. Directly below one aspect of the building, however, are car parking bays that reach a few feet under the overhang of the building. The owner of the car, Edward Lu, said he doesnt normally believe in miracles, but this incident had him thinking differently. I dont know how else to term it, he told Q13 Fox. The boy was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he was in serious but stable condition on the night of April 10. UPDATE: A 20-month-old child was hospitalized with serious injuries Wednesday after falling from the sixth floor of a Redmond apartment complex: Posted by Q13 FOX on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 Just two days earlier a 6-year-old girl in China survived a 26-story fall, and was able to walk away, in a miraculous moment caught on video. A massive plastic awning broke her fall. The unnamed girl fell from a building in southwest Chinas Chongqing City on April 2, the Chongqing Daily reported. Not long after she hit the ground, the girl got up and walks away. The girl was later taken to the hospital and found to only have suffered a broken right hand, the Chongqing Daily reported. Footage shows the girl falling straight down, with her back facing the ground and hands above her. She smashes through a light green awning in the neighborhood parking lot, her body catches on a metal crossbar that supported the awning, and she rolls over. She then hits the ground, rolls towards some parked motorcycles, then gets to her feet, and within moments walks away. Daniel Holl contributed to this report. Workers load cars to be exported at a port in Lianyungang in China's eastern Jiangsu Province on May 31, 2018. (/AFP/Getty Images) US-China Trade War is Rerouting US Import Flows: Report LOS ANGELESPresident Donald Trumps trade war with China has U.S. companies shifting purchases of tariff-targeted products like furniture, refrigerators and car tires to countries such as Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico, according to a new analysis released on April 10. The United States and China have been embroiled in a tit-for-tat tariff battle since mid-2018. The Trump administration imposed tariffs of 10 to 25 percent on about $250 billion of Chinese goods. Overall U.S. imports of containerized freight from China fell 6.4 percent during the first quarter as buyers worked off product stockpiled ahead of tariff increases and rerouted orders to lower-cost countries, S&P Global Market Intelligences trade data firm Panjiva said in the report. U.S. imports of Chinese-made furniture by retailers such as IKEA, Home Depot, Target Corp and Room to Go fell 13.5 percent in the first quarter. That was partly offset by a 37.2 percent rise in shipments from Vietnam and a 19.3 percent increase in imports from Taiwan, Panjiva said. The change also affected home appliances. Imports of Chinese refrigerators fell 24.1 percent during the quarter, when shipments from South Korea and Mexico jumped 31.8 percent and 32 percent, respectively. A major factor in that shift has been a rearrangement in supply chains by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, Panjiva said in the report. The auto industry has also been rethinking trade routes. Tire imports from China slumped 28.6 percent during the first three months of the year. At the same time, U.S. sea ports saw a 141.7 surge in product from Vietnam and an 11.1 percent increase in tire shipments from South Korea. Hankook Tire and Nexen are among the suppliers picking up the new business, Panjiva said. U.S. companies are also shifting factory investments in the wake of the China trade tiff, which a trio of economists estimate has already cost U.S. consumers and companies $19.2 billion. Ohio-based Cooper Tire & Rubber Co in December said it formed a joint venture with Sailun Vietnam Co Ltd. to build a truck and bus radial tire factory near Vietnams Ho Chi Minh City. We are excited about this addition to our manufacturing footprint, which diversifies our sourcing to protect against risk, including tariffs, Cooper Chief Financial Officer Christopher Eperjesy said in February, when the company announced a $34 million write-down on the value of a joint venture manufacturing project in China. By Lisa Baertlein Virginia Wines: American History in a Glass The birthplace of the nation is the home of its earliest vineyardsand today, a host of excellent wines The Commonwealth of Virginia is considered the birthplace of America. Its where English colonists first settled in Jamestown in 1607, and it served as the home for both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, our first and third presidents and signers of the Declaration of Independence. But what many may not know is its historical significance in Americas wine heritage. Many today may refer to Virginia as one of Americas up and coming wine regions, but as history demonstrates, its roots run deeper. Early Roots In 1619, 12 years after English colonists settled in Jamestown, the Virginia House of Burgesses, then the legislative body for the Colony of Virginia, passed an act requiring each male colonist to plant and cultivate at least 10 grapevines. Planting grapes to make wine, using European rootstock, was an attempt to help boost the struggling economy and trade overseas. Grapes were considered an important commodity at the time, since the British drank copious amounts of wine, which was considered safer than the drinking water and good for digestion. The initiative had the best of intentions, but not a terribly successful outcome. Ten grapevines per landowner didnt amount to much production, and the settlers found it hard to grow grapes and easier to produce barley and malt for beer, so thats what they did, noted Bruce Schutte, a wine industry veteran who now leads private tours of Virginia wine country through his company Wine Pro Travel. In the 1700s, after discovering a penchant for fine wine while serving as ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson devoted 2,000 acres of land to start a winery at his home in Monticello, Virginia. However, the European grape varietals he planted were unaccustomed to Virginias damp, frosty winters and hot, humid summers, and failed to thrive. Jefferson almost went bankrupt trying to make wine; fortunately, he fared much better negotiating the Louisiana Purchase and serving as the nations third president. Turning Points While early attempts at viticulture were less successful, things improved as growers gained more knowledge on how to cultivate grapes to adapt to the differences in climate. The red Norton varietal, named for its creator, the scientist Dr. Daniel Norton of Richmond, was the first native grape successfully cultivated in Virginia. This grape, which also has clonal roots in the Midwest under the name Cynthiana, ripens early and produces full-bodied, spicy wines much like Zinfandel. In 1873, a wine made from this grape was named best red wine of all nations at the Vienna Worlds Fair. Today, some Virginia producers still make red wine from the Norton grape. Examples include Chrysalis Vineyards in Northern Virginia, Horton Vineyards in Central Virginia, and Bluestone Vineyards in the Shenandoah Valley. In the years after the Civil War ended, Virginias wine industry began to flourish. But everything came to a halt in the 20th century, thanks to Prohibition and the Great Depression. The wine industry did not recover for decades. It wasnt until the 1970s when winemaking in Virginia showed promise again. A major step forward took place in 1976, when the Zonin family, prominent wine producers in Italy, established Barboursville Vineyards. Zonin had the ability to locate a winery anywhere the world, and they chose Virginia, noted Neal Wavra, owner and wine director for Field and Main Restaurant in the village of Marshall, located between Winchester and Richmond. Another milestone was when Dennis Horton, of Horton Vineyards, won international acclaim for his Viognier at a wine competition in California. This set a trajectory for Virginia to produce the grape and gain further attention from the wider wine drinking world, Wavra said. Virginia Wines Today Now, many international grape varietals hold their own in Virginia. Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Chambourcin, and Tannat dominate the reds. Chardonnay, Viognier, and Petit Manseng, a grape better known in southwest France, are the primary whites, although one may also find white wines made from Vermentino, Albarino, Pinot Blanc, and French-American hybrids like Vidal Blanc and Traminette. The easiest way to describe the wines of Virginia is to say that they are mid-point between California and France, both geographically and stylistically, Wavra said. Virginia wines are elegant and layered with fresh fruited notes that are supported with an underpinning of acidity. They present well in youth and can equally age well. One example is the single-varietal Cabernet Franc wines, which he noted are less extracted, less tannic, and lower in alcohol than their counterparts in California. Another is Petit Manseng, a floral white wine, which is less common in other parts of the United States but flourishes in Virginia. Virginia is now home to nearly 300 wineries throughout seven designated viticultural areas (AVA). Many are family-owned, and production is limited. After recent visits to different appellations, and attending the annual Governors Cup Awards, which recognizes the Best of the Best, I came to appreciate both the heritage and quality of these wines. The Bordeaux blends stand up to their counterparts in California and France, and the whites, notably the Chardonnay, Viognier, and Vidal Blanc, delivered subtle floral, stone fruit, and spice notes that I found refreshing on the palate. Virginia wines can be found on restaurant lists and retailers outside the state, but most are sold through wine clubs and on-site tasting rooms, of which there are plenty. Wine tourism has become an important industry. Many of the wineries ship out of state (where legal), so giving Virginia wines a try is as easy as a click on the computer. Virginia decidedly earns its place in American wine history, and its excellent wines deservedly earn their place at the American table. If You Go Virginia has almost as many winery tasting rooms to visit as historical landmarks and monuments to see. Many are concentrated in northern and central Virginia, although you can also find wineries in the Chesapeake Bay area. Here are a few to visit: Middleburg AVA Located 50 miles west of Washington, D.C., this is Virginia horse country, full of stately manor homes and country retreats. Boxwood Estate Winery Greenhill Vineyards Slater Run Vineyards Shenandoah Valley AVA This area further south serves as the gateway to the Shenandoah National Park. It is also the gateway to some discover some excellent wineries. Barren Ridge Vineyards Bluestone Vineyards CrossKeys Vineyard Monticello AVA Thomas Jefferson would be proud to see his old stomping grounds flourishing with wineries. Theres even a winery named after him, close to Jeffersons home, Monticello, now a popular tourist attraction. Barboursville Vineyards Early Mountain Vineyards Jefferson Vineyards Blue Ridge Wine Region This is a hikers paradise, with the Appalachian Trail to the west and the Blue Ridge Parkway to the east. Abington Vineyards (visits by appointment) Beliveau Estate Firefly Hill Vineyards A full list of producers with tasting rooms and suggested itineraries are available on the Virginia Wine Marketing Board website at VirginiaWine.org. Wine, food, and travel writer Melanie Young recently spent time in Virginias wine country and looks forward to returning. Young co-hosts the weekly national radio show The Connected Table LIVE, which features conversations with wine producers, distillers, and chefs. Connect and follow on Twitter@connectedtable WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen in a police van, after he was arrested by British police, in London on April 11, 2019. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters) Wikileaks Founder Assange Arrested in London on US Extradition Request WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11 after his host country revoked his asylum, paving the way for his extradition to the United States. The United States alleged Assange engaged in a 2010 conspiracy with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning), who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data, and charged him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, with a maximum penalty of five years. Assange was caught on camera as he was carried head first out of the embassy shortly after 10 a.m. by seven men to a waiting police van. UK must resist. UK resist. Resist these attempts by the Trump administration. UK must resist, hes heard shouting posted on social media. Compared to pictures from two years ago, Assange looked noticeably aged on April 11, now with a full white beard. He flashed a wink and a thumbs-up, as well as the victory sign, through the vans window. He spent seven years in the few rooms provided to him at the embassy. The whole House will welcome the news this morning that the Metropolitan Police have arrested Julian Assange, arrested for breach of bail after nearly seven years in the Ecuadorean Embassy, Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament to cheers and cries of Hear, hear! from lawmakers. Police said they arrested Assange, 47, after being invited into the embassy following the Ecuadorian governments withdrawal of asylum. Once brought to the police station, he was rearrested on an extradition request from the United States. He later appeared in the Westminster Magistrates Court. Conspiracy Charges The UK warrant stemmed from Assanges skipping bail in a case in which a Swedish woman accused him of sexual assault. Swedish authorities dropped the charge in 2017, but the breach of bail warrant in the UK remained. In the United States, Assange was indicted in March 2018 for conspiring with Manning to breach the Armys computer system in 2010. Manning provided Assange with nearly 750,000 classified or sensitive military and diplomatic documents, which Assange then published on Wikileaks, the online disclosure platform he founded in 2006. The indictment, released April 11, alleges that Assange encouraged Manning to steal more documents, saying that curious eyes never run dry. He also allegedly agreed to help Manning crack a password that would have allowed Manning to access the Army computer system under a different username, which would have made it more difficult for investigators to identify Manning as the source of disclosures of classified information. The indictment doesnt disclose if Assange was successful in cracking the password. Manning was arrested in March and remains in custody for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating Wikileaks. Hostile Intelligence Service Some journalists have come to Assanges defense, saying the charge is an affront to journalistic freedom. But the U.S. government has long drawn a distinction between Wikileaks and news media. It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really isa non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia, State Secretary Mike Pompeo, then-CIA director, said in April 2017. Assange and his ilk make common cause with dictators and do not care about the causes and people they claim to represent. If they did, they would focus instead on the autocratic regimes in this world that actually suppress free speech and dissent. Instead, they choose to exploit the legitimate secrets of democratic governmentswhich has, so far, proven to be a much safer approach than provoking a tyrant. Russian Hacking Link On July 13, 2018, special counsel Robert Mueller filed charges against a group of Russian operatives for allegedly hacking files of the employees of the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The documents and emails were released through two fictional personasDC Leaks and Guccifer 2.0as well as a third entity not named in the indictment, though, based on the context, is likely Wikileaks. Assange has denied all along that the DNC emails came from a Russian hack, instead, saying that it was a leak. He has also alluded that the source may have been Seth Rich, voter expansion data director for the DNC. In the early hours of July 10, 2016, Rich was gunned down about a block from his Washington home in what police called a possible robbery attempt. None of his valuables appeared to have been stolen and the police never identified a suspect. New Zealand hacker Kim Dotcom also claimed Rich was the source, but provided no evidence aside from a claim that he, himself, was involved. The Waldman Link Adam Waldman, a lawyer to Assange in 2017, also represented Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, as well as interests of former British spy Christopher Steele. In early 2016, Steele appeared to be lobbying Justice Department official Bruce Ohr on Deripaskas behalf and dropped Waldmans name in the process. Later that year, he was paid by the DNC and the Clinton campaign to produce a dossier of unsubstantiated claims about TrumpRussia ties, which was then used by the FBI to obtain a spying warrant on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The circumstances of surveilling the Trump campaign are now under investigation by the Justice Department. Miserable Existence Assange stayed at Ecuadors London embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in the sexual assault investigation. A friend of his said the stay was hard to bear because of the solitude combined with, paradoxically, a lack of privacy. It was a miserable existence and I could see it was a strain on him, but a strain he managed rather well, said Vaughan Smith, a friend who visited Assange. The thing that was most difficult for Julian was the solitude. He was very tough, but the last year in particular was very difficult. He was constantly being surveilled and spied upon. There was no privacy for him. Reuters contributed to this report. Woman Allegedly Assaults Spouse After He Didnt Call Her Pretty A woman in Laredo, Texas, is accused of striking her husband after he didnt call her pretty. Police in Laredo said Lizeth Guadalupe Ramirez, 20, assaulted him after her common-law husband didnt respond when she asked him if she looked pretty while they were at a movie theater, reported LMTOnline. The couple then decided to go home, but Ramirez was still agitated, police said. The husband then said she hit him several times as he drove home, and the assault persisted when they got back, according to the report. The two were at the movies when she asked her husband if she looked pretty. He said he did not hear her, police said. Posted by Chron.com from the Houston Chronicle on Thursday, April 11, 2019 The angry wife then struck and pushed the male before a relative attempted to separate them, said officials. The relative was then assaulted by Ramirez, officials added. She was arrested and charged with two counts of assault. Ramirez, however, claimed that her husband assaulted her and tried to strangle her, the report added. A common-law marriage is one in which a couple lives together for a period of time and holds themselves out to friends, family and the community as being married, says FindLaw. However, they havent ever gone through a formal ceremony or received a marriage license. In the United States, common law marriage has been in existence since the horse and buggy days of 1877. While it might sound like an archaic form of marriage, its still technically around today in one form or another in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Additionally, five states recognize common law marriage with some restrictions, says the website. Texas calls it an informal marriage. The Sheriff's Office has released her mugshot: Posted by Laredo Morning Times on Thursday, April 11, 2019 To be married under common law, the couple has to take the same name, refer to each other as wife and husband, and hold joint bank accounts or credit cards. Other details about the case are not clear. Its also not clear if Ramirez has an attorney. Laredo police officers were sent to the 6400 block of Casa Del Sol Boulevard in Laredo. Violent Crime Up in Texas in 2017 In Texas, according to the FBI, the violent crime rate rose in 2017, reported the Texas Tribune. The agency noted that there were only 1.5 officers for every 1,000 Texas residents last year, which is down from two Texas officers for every 1,000 residents in 2016. In September 2018, the FBI said Americans committed fewer violent and property crimes across the United States in 2017, according to statistics. The violent crime rateincluding offenses such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assaultdropped by almost 1 percent and is still about 4 percent above the 2014 rate. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent. There were more than 1.2 million violent crimes reported to [the FBI] nationwide in 2017. There was a 0.7 percent decrease in murders and a 4 percent decrease in robberies from 2016 to 2017. Aggravated assaults increased 1 percent in 2017. The FBI began collecting data solely on an updated rape definition last year, and 135,755 rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2017, the agency said. Of the estimated 17,284 murders in 2017, more than half occurred in larger citieswith populations of more than 100,000. There are fewer than 300 such cities in the United States, and while they account for less than 30 percent of the countrys population, many of them contribute far beyond their share to national crime rates and have done so for years, even decades. While the national murder rate inched down to 5.3 per 100,000 residents, it spiked by 15 percent in Philadelphia, to a rate of more than 20 per 100,000 residents. Columbus, Ohio, saw a massive 54 percent murder rate increase, reaching nearly 16.3 per 100,000 residents. The murder rate in St. Louis rose by more than 10 percent and reached 66 per 100,000 residentsthe highest among larger cities. Baltimores murder rate rose by nearly 8.5 percent, reaching some 56 per 100,000 residents. Woman Records Sunflowers Singing, It Sounds Like Music From Other Dimension The content is not available due to expiration. World-Class Masterpiece Comes to Auction William Bouguereaus 'La Jeunesse de Bacchus' to be sold by Sotheby's There are a few rare major masterpieces in this world that are equal to William Bouguereaus La Jeunesse de Bacchus (Youth of Bacchus). Of equal significance would be Rembrandts Night Watch or Botticellis Primavera. People travel from all over the world to view paintings like this in a museum, and they are rare and far between. Even rarer is for such a painting to come to auction and be available for sale. It is almost unheard of. La Jeunesse de Bacchus, which is still owned by Bouguereaus descendants, will come to auction at Sothebys New York on May 14. Although normally the artists works are included in the sales of the most important works from the 19th century, La Jeunesse de Bacchus will be included in Sothebys Impressionist & Modern Art exhibitions starting May 3 in the newly expanded and renovated New York galleries. In fact, this work is to be included in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale. Its presence in this sale marks the first time that a work by Bouguereau is being presented in Sothebys marquee evening auctions, designating the importance the artist has attained in the 21st century and the significance of this specific work. The work is estimated at $25 million to $35 million, but in truth, a work of this nature is priceless and belongs to all of humanity. Hopefully, it will be acquired by one of the worlds largest and most prestigious museums. William Bouguereau (18251905), the most popular artist in all of 19th-century France, is indeed becoming one of the most popular artists of all time. By the final three decades of his life, Bouguereaus fame extended across all of Europe and America. Winning every possible award and accolade available to a French artist at the time, he was also a known fighter for justice and equality, donating considerable amounts of time to help the poor and the misfortunate. The artist was all but forgotten by the 1950s. By the late 1970s, public opinion began to change, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art put its three Bouguereau paintings on display in April of 1980, on permanent exhibition, for the first time since the artist had gone out of fashion, as Hilton Kramer reported in The New York Times. By 1984, there was the first major retrospective of the artists works, which traveled from the Musee du Petit-Palais in Paris to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and finally to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1985. La Jeunesse de Bacchus was included in this exhibition, and it has been the only time this specific work has left Bouguereaus studio since his death in 1905. During Bouguereaus life, the work was unveiled at the Paris Salon of 1884, followed by exhibitions in London and Antwerp through 1885. The work then accompanied the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889. This immense painting measures 20 feet in length and is 11 feet high, featuring 20 figures all at life size. The complexity and skill required to harmonize this number of figures in a fluid and melodic fashion is nothing short of astounding. Intertwining hands, overlapping feet, incredible precision in foreshortening, and an imaginative interpretation of the subject matter result in an awe-inspiring work. About William Bouguereau Bouguereau was known to have painted four main types of paintings that were most prevalent throughout his body of work, namely, his mythological works, religious works, works featuring peasants, and finally, portraits. Works of mythological subject matter and those featuring cupids were known as his fancies. The origins of his interest in this type of work most likely stemmed from his time at the Catholic college in Pons, where he studied ancient history and Latin and Greek mythology. This was later reinforced by his time in Rome, early in his career, after winning the Prix de Rome in 1850. Bouguereau painted this work over the course of three years. The subject of La Jeunesse de Bacchus is that of a young Bacchus. However, this is only the superficial subject of the work. In truth, it is an allegorical painting of the human capacity for joy and ultimately love of life, nature, and beauty, all of which the artist held dear. Benjamin Doller, chairman of Sothebys Americas, said in a press release: I remember so clearly when I first saw La Jeunesse de Bacchus at The Wadsworth Atheneum in 1985 that I was struck by the monumentality of the work and the life-size scale of the figures. Not only was I impressed by the size of this great painting, but I was so enamored with the life-like quality of the figures. Technically brilliant, each figure seemed to have its own unique personality. Seeing the painting in Bouguereaus studio, hanging on the very wall where he painted, it was an emotional experience for me. I was attracted once again by the magnetic presence of the central group of dancing figures. Indeed, for a few seconds, I felt they were dancing in front of the picture, as if the painting were three-dimensional. When you see the true majestic scale and technical brilliance of this masterpiece, you realize this is one of the greatest pictures painted in the 19th century. Its appearance on the market, something I would have only dreamed of back in 1985, will present a truly singular opportunity to acquire a work that is the last and greatest of its kind. The timing of this works surfacing to auction could not be more appropriate. There is currently another major exhibition of the artists work that will travel. The show is titled Bouguereau & America and includes over 45 works by the artist. The exhibition is currently on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum until May 12 and is scheduled to travel to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art from June 22 to Sept. 22, 2019. Finally, the show is scheduled at the San Diego Museum of Art, where it will be on view from Nov. 9, 2019, to March 15, 2020. The work La Jeunesse de Bacchus has also just been featured in a new publication titled William Bouguereau: The Essential Works written by myself and the co-author of the William Bouguereau Catalogue Raisonne, Frederick C. Ross. All students, scholars, and art enthusiasts are encouraged to come to Sothebys to view this masterpiece while it is on public display. Depending on who purchases the work, it could be the only time it will be available for public viewing in the foreseeable future. Kara Lysandra Ross, the chief operating officer for the Art Renewal Center (ArtRenewal.org), is an expert in 19th-century European painting. The European Union called on Libyan warlord Khalifa Hifter to stop his advance on Tripoli, but -- after a day of objections from France and other member states -- the long-delayed statement doesn't mention him by name. "The LNA and all the forces that have moved into Tripoli or its vicinity must withdraw and the humanitarian truces called by the UN must be heeded," said the statement, using the acronym for Hifter's Libyan National Army. While Paris wants the offensive to be halted, it felt the document's original wording put too much blame on the Benghazi-based general, who's a French ally, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. French officials presented amendments expressing concern over the involvement of other militias in the fighting, demanding all sides sign up for United Nations peace talks, and calling for the protection of civilians and migrants. The amendments were presented late Wednesday, and the final statement wasn't made public until late Thursday. Italy and Sweden also had objections to the original text, a person informed of the drafting said. Hifter has already ignored calls from foreign governments to stop his advance on Tripoli and is unlikely to be shaken by the EU's declaration. France and Britain played a key role in the NATO-backed uprising that overthrew Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, but their influence in the North African oil producer has been eclipsed as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the U.A.E., Turkey and Qatar entered the fray, at times backing rival factions. "The military attack launched by the LNA on Tripoli and the subsequent escalation in and around the capital are endangering civilians, including migrants and refugees, and disrupting the UN-led political process, with the risk of serious consequences for Libya and the wider region, including the terrorist threat," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in the emailed statement on behalf of the 28-nation EU. Dozens of people have died since last week when Hifter began his campaign, and Libya has again roiled oil markets. France is now in an awkward spot. The French have provided military support for the warlord, who's subdued militants in southern Libya that threaten former French colonies south of the Sahara. At the same time, President Emmanuel Macron's administration has hosted two summits to support the U.N.'s political process -- which Hifter has signed up to while also treating it with disdain. "Hifter has represented France's Libya policy, they believed that he represented stability," said Tarek Megerisi, a researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London. "The French thought they could build the political process around Hifter, which took quite a bit of dissonance given that he's never hidden what he thought of the whole thing." France's involvement in the Libya crisis has at times chafed with Italy. Successive Italian governments have wanted a dominant role because they've been most affected by migrant flows and disrupted energy supplies from their former colony. While France and Italy have recently appeared united in public in calling for a political solution, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted on Thursday that he won't "stand by" if it turns out that France blocked a "European initiative to bring peace to Libya." Four EU members -- France, Germany, Britain, and Italy -- signed up to a G-7 foreign ministers' statement last weekend that expressed "deepest concern about military operations near Tripoli" and urged "all involved parties to immediately halt all military activity and movements" toward the capital. Unlike the EU statement released, the G-7 didn't mention Hifter specifically. - - - Bloomberg's Jonathan Stearns and Nikos Chrysoloras contributed. Contributed photo The Pequot Library in Fairfield is hosting a free family program with the Greater Bridgeport Symphonys Maestro Eric Jacobsen Saturday, April 13, prior to the GBS 8 p.m. concert at The Klein Memorial Auditorium in Bridgport. Billed as Close Encounters with the Conductor of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, echoing the GBS current A Season In Space theme, the event will take place at 4 p.m. in the librarys auditorium at 720 Pequot Ave., in the towns Southport section. As influencer marketing continues to explode in terms of its impact, so has scrutiny on how these engagements are arranged and played out. This is especially true when it comes to the proper disclosure of an influencers relationships with brands when he or she receives any form of compensation for endorsements. Related: 4 Influencer Marketing Lessons Learned From the Calamitous Fyre Festival Such compensation is separate and distinct from unsolicited editorial praise for a product or service. But when compensation does occur -- be it money, trips, clothing, hotel stays, restaurant meals, jewelry, etc. -- legal penalties are more and more likely to ensue. Nothing less than the Fyre Festival fiasco illustrates the not only civil, but criminal liability that can happen for the parties involved. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is now paying close attention to endorsements and getting aggressive with influencers and brands in enforcing the FTC Trade Commission Act (the Act), which is the federal law governing truth in advertising. In April 2017 alone, the FTC sent out more than 90 compliance reminder letters to influencers, including Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez, as well as to the brands involved -- and this number continues to increase. Related: Be Careful How 'Fyre'd' up You Get About Influencer Marketing The FTC letters emphasized the influencers obligation to disclose their material connections -- meaning if they were paid or otherwise compensated by brands and other companies they endorsed -- so as not to mislead the public and violate the Act. The FTC has also begun fining and suing for non-compliance. What happened with the infamous Fyre Festival Its not just with brands and influencers where the FTC is cracking down. The Commission s looking into whether brands' PR agencies are compliant too. As extensively reported in the press and in two documentaries, the Fyre Festival -- brainchild of entrepreneur Billy McFarland and his partner, rapper Ja Rule, was billed as an idyllic, bacchanalian, multi-day music festival on a private Bahamian island (touted as previously owned by Pablo Escobar, no less). As was soon uncovered, several prominent influencers, including Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowsky, were prominently featured in a lavish promotional video and handsomely paid for their endorsements of the Festival. According to reports, Ratajkowsky received $300,000, and Kendall Jenner received $250,000 for just one glowing Instagram post. As a result of the video and promotions, Fyre sold out in 48 hours. Unfortunately, neither Fyre Media, nor the influencers themselves, nor their agencies disclosed that the influencers were paid, in blatant violation of the Act. So, if your company or PR agency is hiring influencers, you'd do well to review the disclosure information detailed in the FTCs Endorsement Guides and FAQs. The Guides intention is to provide transparency, so that anyone exposed to endorsements and promotions can determine if those materials were merely editorial reviews or the opinions of those giving them -- or material connections. Fyre fallout The fallout of the Fyre Festival has been monumental. In fact, the Festival never took place. The FBI got involved. McFarland is in prison for fraud. His company,which organized the festival, was forced into involuntary asset-less bankruptcy. And Billboard reported this past January that the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee was subpoenaing talent agencies and influencers involved. These individuals were being asked to testify about what they did and didnt know, including what happened to over $26 million McFarland raised to stage the event. The trustee might also file a complaint with the FTC, as this investigation has recently focused on Fyres social media marketing campaign. This would likely draw scrutiny of the festivals PR agency, for organizing the disclosure-less social campaign, as well as of the many well-known influencers involved, for failing to comply with the Act. The federal rules were, and are, something they (or their lawyer/managers) should have known they were required to comply with. The takeaway for businesses In my over seven years of experience representing all levels of influencers, I've seen brands, agencies and social platforms provide policies to guide those influencers on compliance with the Act. But sometimes the guidelines have not always been black and white. Here are seven best practices influencers, brands and agenncies must follow. They spell out exactly what these players must comply with, to avoid being sued or fined for not disclosing endorsements: 1. Disclose in each post. A single, general disclosure on a homepage, YouTube channel or the like, isnt FTC compliant. 2. Make it close to impossible for consumers to overlook disclosures. In visual content, like that on YouTube or Instagram Stories, use clear, eye-catching images, as well as text in a large, simple-to-read font that contrasts with its background. Dont use audio disclosures alone for visual content, as social media content is often viewed without sound. Repeat disclosures periodically, as viewers may tune in mid-stream. 3. Recognize that getting a discount on something is the same as being paid. Disclose if friends or family want you to review their product or service, and the personal relationship. For example, if a friend or family member opens a new restaurant and wants your feedback, in return for a free or discounted meal, realize that your action may be illegal. Even without the freebie, the restaurant owner's action implies that he or she expects a positive review. So, know what you're being asked for. 4. Also disclose if you're asked to positively review or endorse a hotel or resort that provides a free or discounted stay. 5. Know that a third party, even a charity, receiving money on your behalf is the same as being paid. Disclose if a brand you're doing business with donates to a charity in exchange for your or your client's review or endorsement. 6. Make dislosures about tagging brands on social. Let your followers know why that item was tagged and include a disclosure beside the picture or text, not in the section that's viewable only when a user clocks more. 6. Be careful with hashtag endorsements. Tags like #client, #advisor, #consultant, thanks or #ambassador are too vague. Use #ad or #sponsored instead. Put the disclosure at the very beginning of the endorsement or review, by itself, separated from and not mixed in with other text, links or hashtags. 7. Have an experienced influencer lawyer review your proposed disclosures. Related: Creator of Doomed Fyre Festival Gets 6-Year Prison Sentence If it wasnt before, the regulatory and legal message is now crystal clear: Failure by influencers, brands and related agencies to comply with the Act can bring a conflagration of serious consequences. Don't let "fyre" burn you down. Related: 'Fyre' Danger! 7 Ways Influencers, Brands and Agencies Can Avoid Getting Burned for Not Disclosing Endorsements How Open Relationships and Psychedelics Have Shaped This Entrepreneur's Mindset Asi es como los micro influencers impulsaran la monetizacion en el futuro Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Eight entrepreneurs look back on pivotal decisions made in their businesses, some at the right time, and plenty at the wrong time.Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com A high school principal in New Jersey has been changing the culture for the better at his school by providing practical programs and services that students can use. Principal Akbar Cook, who works at West Side High School in Newark, New Jersey, has opened the doors at the school from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday nights in a program called Lights On as a safe place for students to hang out, Yahoo reported. While it might not sound like much -- providing a space for students gym access, a place to dance and be fed warm meals -- its made a huge difference in what kids could be doing otherwise. "I haven't lost any more kids to gun violence since the start of the school year," Cook told WABC-TV. The school will be also be open three nights a week during the summer. Last year, Cook facilitated the installation of a laundry room at the school that students can use for free, since students said they sometimes skipped school because they were scared of being teased for wearing dirty clothes. He said the school had a 10 percent increase in daily attendance after the washers and dryers were installed. "I think we really put the microscope on basic needs of kids, Cook told CBS News. Everyone wants the high test scores, everyone wants them to perform well. But if the kid doesn't feel confidence in just coming to school, being that person we know they can be, then what are we doing. WESTPORT Superintendent Colleen Palmer will receive her full salary until she leaves Westport schools in August, Palmers newly released separation agreement with the Board of Education says. The Board of Education (BOE) voted on the separation agreement, which the Westport News obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, at the boards April 8 meeting. Palmer is relieved of her duties as superintendent and will be on paid leave for medical reasons until her employment ends on July 31, the agreement says. Until this period, the BOE will pay Palmer her annual base salary in accordance with the salary and payroll terms and schedules, applying the paid sick and vacation days Palmer is entitled in her contract, the agreement says. Last year Palmer topped the list of Westports highest-paid town employees, with a salary of $300,411, which means Palmer will be paid a salary of about $5,777 per week and $138,648 in total while away on medical leave until August. The terms of Palmers retirement package were not stipulated in the separation agreement. Palmers current employment contract was not set to end until June of 2021, but when Palmer announced in March that she would leave the district for retirement, effective July 31, 2019, the BOE accepted her resignation, the agreement says. Dr. Palmer has informed the Board of her need to remain on leave for medical reasons for the remainder of her employment with the Board, the agreement says, without specifying the date Palmer notified the BOE of her need for a permanent leave. Dr. Palmer and the Board further understand and agree that this Agreement does not constitute any admission by the Board that the Board is in any way liable to Dr. Palmer or that the Board harmed or damaged Dr. Palmer or violated any rights Dr. Palmer may have or in any respect treated her unfairly or unlawfully, nor does this Agreement constitute an admission of any misconduct or unlawful act by Dr. Palmer, the agreement states, perhaps in reference to the tumultuous weeks at Westport Public Schools that preceded the finalization of the separation agreement. In the weeks since Palmers March 14 announcement, information came out about the alleged turmoil in the district over which Palmer presided. A survey released a few days before Palmer announced her resignation shows widespread discontent, distrust and concern among Westport school administrators. The night before the announcement, the Westport Parent Teacher Association sent a letter to the education board calling for a third-party independent investigation into the workplace culture of town schools. Palmer did not return to the district after she told administrators she would be away due to a family emergency on March 22, at which time Assistant Superintendent Anthony Buono took charge, although his title as Acting Superintendent was not solidified until the April 8 BOE meeting. Buonos salary as Acting Superintendent will remain the same as the $215,000 salary he earns as Assistant Superintendent. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 WESTPORT With a message of celebrating diversity, Westporter and Representative Town Meeting member Lauren Soloff became president of her familys business, Sonics & Materials, Inc. Soloff was named president of Sonics, an ultrasonic technology manufacturer, at the companys 50th anniversary celebration on April 5. Her father, Robert S. Soloff, founded Sonics in Danbury in 1969, which, like 2019, were turbulent and uncertain years, Lauren Soloff said. Sonics diverse staff, which includes 85 employees at the companys headquarters in Newtown, makes her hopeful, Soloff said. We have employees at Sonics who were born in Brazil, England, Thailand, India, Portugal, France, Philippines, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Puerto Rico. .. We do business in no less than 125 countries, including places such as Iceland, Estonia, and Zambia, Soloff said at the event. When people walk through our doors, whether it be as an employee, customer, vendor, family member or friend, people sense that they are in a place where views are respected, and differences are appreciated - a place where judgement is not based on where you were born or what your diploma may or may not say but by your unique contribution to Sonics, she added. In 2017, Soloff, a registered Democrat, was elected to the Westports Representative Town Meeting from District 9. Soloff said she hopes to continue Sonics history of innovation, which includes 30 patents for technological innovations related to the manufacture of plastic assembly, metal welding and packaging used in automotive, aviation and medical device equipment, among other industries. I appreciate the trust my father has shown me, as well as the hard work and support of all the Sonics employees who have brought us to 50 years of success, Soloff said. State Attorney General William Tong and Westport state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg also attended the 50th anniversary celebration. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy highlighted Sonics as his Monday Manufacturer last week. Im happy to highlight Sonics & Materials 50 years of service to the manufacturing sector in Connecticut and their commitment to training the next generation of students in the ultransonics field. Their hard work goes a long way to ensuring Connecticut manufacturing remains competitive, Murphy said. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was forcibly bundled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and into a British police van on Thursday, setting up a potential court battle over attempts to extradite him to the U.S. to face charges related to the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents. Police arrested Assange after the South American nation decided to revoke the political asylum that had given him sanctuary for almost seven years. Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said he took the action due to "repeated violations to international conventions and daily life." In Washington, the U.S. Justice Department accused Assange of conspiring with Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer at the Pentagon. The charge was announced after Assange was taken into custody. His lawyer has previously said that Assange planned to fight any U.S. charges against him. Assange took refuge in the embassy in 2012 after he was released on bail in Britain while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations that have since been dropped. He refused to leave the embassy, fearing arrest and extradition to the U.S. for publishing classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks. Over the years, Assange used the embassy as a staging post to keep his name before the public, frequently making appearances on its tiny balcony, posing for pictures and reading statements. Even his cat became well-known. But his presence was an embarrassment to U.K. authorities, who for years kept a police presence around the clock outside the embassy, costing taxpayers millions in police overtime. Such surveillance was removed years ago, but the embassy remained a focal point for his activities. Video posted online by Ruptly, a news service of Russia Today, showed several men in suits pulling Assange out of the embassy and loading him into a police van while uniformed British police formed a passageway. Assange sported a full beard and slicked-back gray hair. He later appeared in Westminster Magistrates' Court, where District Judge Michael Snow wasted no time in finding him guilty of breaching his bail conditions, flatly rejecting his assertion that he had not had a fair hearing and a reasonable excuse for not appearing. "Mr. Assange's behavior is that of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests," Snow said. "He hasn't come close to establishing 'reasonable excuse.'" Assange waved to the packed public gallery as he was taken away to the cells. His next appearance was set for May 2 via prison video-link in relation to the extradition case. Speaking in Parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the arrest shows that "no one is above the law." Moreno said in a video posted on Twitter that Ecuador was no longer willing to give Assange protection. Other Ecuadorian officials in Quito accused supporters of WikiLeaks and two Russian hackers of trying to destabilize the country. "The discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable," Moreno said. Assange has been under U.S. Justice Department scrutiny for years for WikiLeaks' role in publishing thousands of government secrets. He was an important figure in the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe as investigators examined how WikiLeaks obtained emails that were stolen from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and Democratic groups. WikiLeaks quickly drew attention to U.S. interest in Assange and said that Ecuador had illegally terminated Assange's political asylum "in violation of international law." "Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to de-humanise, de-legitimize and imprison him," the group said in a tweet over a photo of Assange's smiling face. But Moreno appeared to suggest that a swift extradition to America was not likely. "In line with our strong commitment to human rights and international law, I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr. Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty," Moreno said. "The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules." Assange's arrest came a day after WikiLeaks accused the Ecuador's government of an "extensive spying operation" against him. WikiLeaks claims that meetings with lawyers and a doctor inside the embassy over the past year were secretly filmed. In Quito on Thursday, Ecuador's government denounced what it called attempts by supporters of WikiLeaks and two Russian hackers to destabilize their country as its standoff with Assange intensified in recent weeks. Ecuador Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said a close collaborator of WikiLeaks had traveled with former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino this year to several countries including Peru, Spain and Venezuela in an attempt to undermine the Ecuadorian government. She did not identify the person but said their name and those of the two Russian hackers working in Ecuador would be turned over to judicial authorities. She also said Ecuador's embassy in Spain and other diplomatic missions abroad have received threats related to the case. Assange's arrest drew a mixed reaction. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Moreno for breaking the impasse, saying on Twitter that Assange "is no hero and no one is above the law." But Edward Snowden, the former security contractor who leaked classified information about U.S. surveillance programs, called Assange's arrest a blow to media freedom. "Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the U.K.'s secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of like it or not award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books," Snowden said in a tweet. "Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom," Snowden said from Russia, which has granted him permission to stay there while he is wanted by the U.S. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said Russia wants Assange's rights to be protected following his arrest. Dmitry Peskov told reporters that he could not comment on the overall case but "we of course hope that all of his rights will be observed." An independent U.N. human rights expert said he won't relent in his efforts to determine whether Assange's privacy rights were violated at the embassy in London. Joe Cannataci, the special rapporteur on privacy, had planned to travel to London on April 25 to meet with Assange and said he still planned to do so wherever Assange is at the time. "I will visit him and speak to him in a police station or elsewhere in the U.K. where he may be held," Cannataci said. EDWARDSVILLE Four years ago, Metro-East Lutheran High School faculty created a weeklong learning experience for their students outside of the classroom. We started a new, kind of unique, educational offering a couple of years back called Interim, Metro-East Lutheran High School Principal Jay Krause said. Its a one week opportunity in the spring where we essentially kind of pause and we dont have any of our normal classes. During the Interim program, students get to choose from a list of different learning opportunities to participate in instead of going to their normal classes, while also gaining credit. These Interim offerings kind of break-up the pace of the second semester and give our students the opportunity to get more involved, Krause said. It really has been a blessing for our school; its very unique and at the same time it offers a credit opportunity for our students to get more experience while theyre doing it. This year students were able to pick from a list of many different opportunities such as violin lessons, museum touring, fiber arts, martial arts and self-defense, sign language and more. A large group of students participated in their mandatory week of service during this springs Interim program. We had a large service group. We had a group of 40 kids do all kinds of service opportunities in the Metro-East area. So, these 40 kids volunteered and went to different churches, schools, social agencies and did service work for the entire week, Krause said. Another group of students flew to Puerto Rico to provide communities with a hand in recovery. We also had a mission trip to Puerto Rico with a pretty larger group of students, about 20 students went to Puerto Rico to help with recovery efforts from a couple years ago now. Each year MELHS also offers a learning experience outside of the country. Myself, along with along faculty member, led a really cool history trip to Europe. We went to Austria, Germany and Switzerland, he said. According to Krause, MELHS students have the opportunity to connect with the community during the week. We feel strongly that it enhances our relationship with the Metro-East area here because for the most part, those courses are in the community, Krause said. Our parents get involved in it as well, so it becomes a real community building kind of offering. Reach reporter Breanna Booker at bre.booker@edwpub.net GLEN CARBON Officials listened to the latest update on the Old Troy Road construction project during the village meeting Tuesday. The road project, which went dormant during the winter, is approximately 50 percent complete. The old, oil and chip, two-lane farm road with no shoulders is becoming a modern concrete road with two- and three-lane sections, shoulders, sidewalks, guardrails and up-to-date signage. Juneau and Associates Project Manager Brian Kulick said for the section between Mont and Glen Crossing roads, crews have laid the road, striped it, and paved the shoulders with guardrails and road signage slated to be installed this week. With the earlier snow and recent rains, it has been too wet to landscape and seed this section but it should open to drivers before the end of the month. Kulick said the projects next phase will focus on reconstructing Bouse Road between Chamberlain Drive on the east and Fairview Drive on the west. Work on relocating utilities has already begun and soon, with the permission of area landowners, a raised yellow, one lane by-pass with intermittent passing areas will be erected. Bouse Road traffic will use this by-pass while the original road is reconstructed. Bouse Road construction should start after schools let out for the summer and should be complete, weather permitting, in late summer. After Bouse is complete, work will begin on the rest of Old Troy Road, from Glen Crossing Road south to a point about 450 feet north of Route 162. Crews will pave Old Troy to Bouse, leave a gap for the intersection work, then continue past Father McGivney Catholic High School, leaving another gap where McArthur Drive meets Old Troy Road. Once past Bouse, construction work will force McGivney parents, visitors and employees to take a detour to get to and from school during part of the 2019-2020 academic year. Drivers will travel east on Route 162 to Formosa Road, take Formosa north to Bouse then head west on Bouse to Chamberlain Drive in Liberty Village. Drivers will then go from Chamberlain to McClelland to McArthur drives, which allows access to McGivneys southernmost drive. Old Troy Road will not be rebuilt all the way to 162 because Kulick said last year they must leave space for a future roundabout or other new intersection at that location and that connection is not part of this project. He said the entire Old Troy Road project should be finished by Dec. 31, again, weather permitting. A public meeting will repeat this information for those interested on April 15 at Cassens Elementary School, 1014 Glen Crossing Road, at 5:30 p.m. In other action, the village board unanimously approved the following items: A change order of $4.7 million for Bouse Road improvements and a contract amendment of $60,200 for the Old Troy Road Project Appointed Mary Westerhold to the villages Historical and Museum Commission until April 30, 2021 Termination of the intragovernmental agreement to buy bulk water from Edwardsville A professional service agreement with Juneau Associates for a connection to Illinois-American Water A professional engineering contract with Juneau for $49,400 to complete design and construction management of the 2020 Small Water Main Replacement project Approved Munie Lawn Care for seasonal mowing at various village locations for the next three years Approved lift station repairs with Vandevanter Engineering not to exceed $46,137 Approved lift station upgrades with Vandevanter Engineering for Glenwood, Jo Ida and Glen Crossing costing $153,172 Approved two agreements for Yoga in Schon Park 2019, one for Tuesdays, the other for Thursdays Approved a litany of Homecoming-related contracts and items Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 656-4700, ext. 31 SPRINGFIELD More than 60 percent of Illinois public school districts have a starting annual salary for teachers of less than $40,000. That could change as both chambers of the General Assembly consider bills that would set $40,000 as the minimum salary for a teacher. Advocates say House Bill 2078, sponsored by Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) and approved Tuesday by the House, would help remedy the states growing teacher shortage. Theres not just one issue why we dont have teachers, but the pay certainly is a big part of it Stuart said in floor debate Tuesday. In a March survey by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents, 85 percent of responding school districts had major or minor problems with teacher shortages. The problems were pronounced in central and southern Illinois, where about 90 percent of responding districts said they had trouble finding qualified teachers to fill positions. While opponents of Stuarts bill recognize the shortage, they argue that many school districts would have to lay off employees, cut programs, or increase classroom sizes to accommodate a salary increase. For the states neediest school districts, it is not the case that passing this bill will allow them to pay teachers more, said Rep. Avery Bourne, a Republican from Raymond. Bourne said while no one disputes the intent behind the bill, it does not account for regional differences in the state, and the finances of school districts with lower property wealth. Under Stuarts bill, the salary increases would occur in steps, starting at just more than $32,000 for the 2020-21 school year and reaching $40,000 by 2023-24. Rep. Kathleen Willis, a Democrat from Addison, said even the $32,000 figure equates to only about $16 an hour for a full-time employee. State teachers should start with a salary that is not an insult to the amount of work they do, Willis said. Anne Stava-Murray, a Democrat from Naperville, agreed, saying its absolutely criminal that we could have a full-time working mother relying on government subsidies because her school district job doesnt pay enough to pay the bills and feed her family. Stuart said the reason more than 60 percent of school districts have minimum salaries below $40,000 is because the states teacher salary laws date back to the 1980s, and range from only $9,000 to $11,000. A bill similar to Stuarts passed both chambers last year, but was vetoed by former Gov. Bruce Rauner. HB 2078 passed by a vote of 79-31, and is now headed to the Senate for consideration. The Senate, however, has its own bill raising the minimum teaching salary in the state to $40,000. Senate Bill 10, sponsored by Bunker Hill Democrat Andy Manar, also would require a financial impact study. The legislation was slated for a third and final reading Wednesday night, but had not yet been called prior to press time. SPRINGFIELD Is a line in Illinois Constiution instructing the General Assembly to pass a balanced budget a requirement, or a suggestion? That question was recently posed to the Supreme Court, weaved into a case that challenged the constitutionality of taxpayer-funded abortions through Medicaid. Although the states highest court declined to hear the case, the leading expert on Illinois governing document said the language is indeed a mandate. The Thomas More Society, a conservative law firm based in Chicago, filed a lawsuit against legislation known as House Bill 40, which was signed by former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and allows tax dollars to be spent on abortion procedures through Illinois Medicaid and state employee health insurance programs. Part of senior counsel Peter Breens argument was that the Legislature did not estimate the laws cost to taxpayers or set aside money to cover that cost. He said that is a violation of the Constitution, which says the General Assembly cannot allocate more money to be spent than it estimates Illinois will have in revenue each fiscal year. Were not asking the courts to say that the Legislature put in a revenue estimate that was too high or too low. We said they did not do their job at all, Breen said. The people of Illinois need the protection of that balanced budget requirement. Ann Lousin, a professor at John Marshall Law School in Chicago, helped draft Illinois governing document at the Constitutional Convention five decades ago. She said although the Constitution indeed charges the Legislature to pass a balanced budget, compelling enforcement is complicated. I can be argued out of it if someone presents me with a good argument, but I have always taken the position that you cannot require by judicial order the General Assembly to make an estimate of revenues available, Lousin said. That is because if a court hypothetically ordered the legislative branch to enact a balanced budget, lawmakers would need to simply estimate Illinois revenue to be higher than the amount of money they intend to spend for a fiscal year, even by just $1. For example, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability could estimate the proceeds from the sale of a government-owned building could balance the budget. Rauner used the alleged imminent sale of the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago for $300 million to balance his budget. The state still has not sold the building. The Supreme Court rejected Breens petition to consider the case. Three of the seven justices, though, issued a rare dissenting opinion arguing the high court should have heard arguments. They dismissed the logic of the lower court, which said the judicial branch cannot get involved in this matter because of its political implications. It stems from a legal concept called the political question doctrine, which asks whether a courts decision will intrude on another branch of government. Justice Robert Thomas wrote that whether the General Assembly complies with the balanced budget requirement of the Constitution is undoubtedly of sufficient importance to the people of the state of Illinois as to compel this courts review. I would therefore grant the petition. Justices Thomas Kilbride and Anne Burke joined in the dissent. The three are an interesting combination, Lousin said, because they are two Democrats and one Republican from judicial districts in Chicago, the suburbs and downstate. Breen said that shows this is not a partisan issue and its not an ideological issue. In a state like ours, the issue of whether the budget must be balanced is of grave importance to the people and I desperately hope the Supreme Court will take up the issue of whether the people of Illinois meant what they said in the Constitution that the budget has to be balanced, he said. Maybe the next case that is over something a little less controversial than abortion, maybe we could get a fourth justice to decide to hear the issue of a balanced budget. Reach reporter Rebecca Anzel at ranzel@capitolnewsillinois.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ary Hermawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 09:23 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87324fe56 1 Opinion #commentary,#2019PresidentialElection,#2019GeneralElections,2019-presidential-election,Islamist-militants,conservatism,Prabowo-Subianto,politics,religion Free In an op-ed published in The New York Times (Feb. 14, 2019), renowned author Eka Kurniawan commented on the April 17 elections: No matter who ends up being president, conservative Islamic groups, backed by radical groups, will win have already won the election. His piece echoed the narrative that foreign media outlets and this paper have been peddling since the highly divisive Jakarta gubernatorial election in 2017: that Islam is gaining ground in Indonesias electoral politics. There is some truth to this argument. Sectarianism is on the rise, and Islamist groups, once considered fringe, have become mainstream and normalized. These factors played a crucial role in determining the outcome of the Jakarta election, which pitted the Christian incumbent (Basuki Tjahaja Purnama), against his Muslim challenger (Anies Baswedan). The Jakarta election was a game-changer in many ways. Today, the man behind the religious fatwa against the defeated Christian candidate is the running mate of President Joko Jokowi Widodo. The Islamist groups that staged mass rallies to defend that fatwa are now ardent supporters of Jokowis sole challenger and long-time rival, Prabowo Subianto. One need only glance at the videos and photos of the largest rally that Prabowo and Sandiaga Uno held on Sunday at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium to conclude that religion has indeed come to dominate Indonesian politics. Ekas claim seems irrefutable from this perspective, but thats the long and short of it: political Islam is perceived to be on the rise because Islamic identity has become more pronounced in the public sphere in recent years, and because religious sentiment seems to have become a potent political weapon. The reality is much more complex than that. In fact, political Islam in its many forms could be facing its biggest setback in decades this year. This is because the Islamic parties failed to form a coalition to field their own candidate in the presidential race. They instead chose to pick between Jokowi and Prabowo, neither of whom could be considered an Islamic figure, or even associated with a particular Islamic group. They are card-carrying members of nationalist parties who have used religious sentiment solely as part of their campaign strategies. This has had serious political consequences. According to a March survey by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Islamic parties are actually losing voters to their nationalist allies as a result of the coattail, or down-ballot, effect, which is the tendency for a popular political leader to draw votes for his or her party. So whats happening now is that the Gerindra Party, which is led by Prabowo, has taken votes from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), while the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), of which Jokowi is a member, has taken votes from the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB). Some surveys predict that the PDI-P will gain about 25 percent of the vote, while Gerindra will gain about 14 percent. The PKB, meanwhile, could be the only Islamic party left standing after the April 17 elections, with all other Islamic parties expected not to pass the 4 percent legislative threshold. This is consistent with the findings of political scientists Saiful Mujani and Thomas Pepinsky: Indonesian Muslims are becoming more pious, but this increasing religiosity does not necessarily translate into electoral support for political Islam. The future does not look rosy for Islamist groups, either. The Prabowo camp may have courted members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) for the elections, but there is no guarantee their political alliance will go beyond April 17, when the two electoral contenders will no longer see the need to pander to any group for votes. Prabowo and FPI leader Rizieq Shihab are strange bedfellows, united by a common enemy. During Sundays event at the GBK, Prabowo bailed when Rizieq addressed the rally via video call. It is unlikely that the FPI or HTI would ever evolve into political parties to replace the Islamic parties. The FPI is a paramilitary group with no interests in governance, while the HTI is antidemocratic. Nor will the 212 Movement save the day. It is a loose coalition of various Islamist groups that fractured soon after Rizieq fled to Saudi Arabia, according to the April 2018 report of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC). With respected 212 figure Maruf Amin running alongside Jokowi, the movement has lost its historical rationale for existing at all. To summarize, Islamic parties are losing votes, and Islamist groups, which work outside formal political structures, may soon become politically irrelevant once the dust settles on April 17 when ideological Muslim voters will be forced to choose between two nationalist leaders who appear to care more about their electability than their constituents ideological aspirations. From this perspective, how can it be said that the Islamists are pulling ahead? It may be contrary to conventional wisdom, but a nationalist leader and his nationalist party will most certainly end up winning the presidency on April 17 whoever that may turn out to be and the proponents of political Islam will have some soul-searching to do. The biggest question now is whether these nationalists will lead Indonesia forward by doing away with faith-based politics and restoring our badly wounded democracy, or if they will turn back the clock even further by constantly stoking divisive and sectarian politics for short-term political gains. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Abhay Regi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 12:43 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8732d3113 3 Opinion Indonesia,India,politics,religion,economy,#2019PresidentialElection,#2019GeneralElections Free The flight from Chennai in southern India to Surabaya, Indonesia, might as well have been a domestic route. The similarities between the two cities are many: from their seemingly-lawless motorcyclists to the abundant street-side vendors selling better food than most five-star restaurants. They share a history that has pushed the two giants, India and Indonesia, far past their colonial histories to a period of multicultural state building, an economic plenitude for their new middle-classes and a perhaps deeply troubling political present. What sealed the deal for me when I visited Indonesia recently was that politics was on the tip of everybodys tongue. The youth relishing satay in Surabayas Lapangan Kodam or the mothers swatting flies in Solos bustling Pasar Gade is a familiar scene. It could have been a sweet stall in Allahabads old market where vendors are discussing Prime Minister Modis latest diatribe against the Muslim minority. There was something quite familiar about people in a warung (foodstall) pontificating about Indonesian vice-presidential candidate Sandiaga Unos call for halal tourism in Bali. The setting is interchangeable given the election fever gripping both countries. Both Indians and Indonesians tap away at on their smartphones, forwarding via WhatsApp something contentious President Joko Jokowi Widodos running mate Maruf Amin said or retweeting the latest meme of challenger Prabowo Subianto, all in the middle of important conversations! The worlds largest and third-largest democracies are weeks away from arguably their most momentous electoral decisions yet. Both countries are navigating the future of secularism, religious moderation and corruption. These elections will show what democracy truly means across the developing world. As India begins polling on April 11 and Indonesia on April 17, there are a few similarities to be highlighted. In both countries, inflation and unemployment are rife. The other obvious similarity [...] is the rise of religious fundamentalism. In Indonesia, inflation has hurt the middle-class though the poor have been kept partially afloat by a well-structured subsidy system and monetary injections into rural areas through the Village Fund program. Through the fund, some US$4.26 billion was diverted to 74,957 villages across the country. The government has successfully created new economic centers in rural areas, reducing poverty from 14.17 percent ( 2014 ) to 13.12 percent ( 2018 ). In India, on the other hand, mild urban inflation coupled with agricultural deflation has brought down prices of produce, leading to distress sales, systemic poverty and mass farmer suicides in rural areas. In contrast, many of the villages I visited near Jember in East Java showed signs of closing the gap with faraway cities such as Surabaya and Yogyakarta. But the rural and/or urban divide in India has gotten worse over the past five years. In the past two decades, more than 300,000 farmers have committed suicide. Let that sink in. Only in February, in a feeble attempt to appease protesting farmers, the Indian government promised them 6,000 rupee (US$87) a year in handouts. Economics matters in both countries. It allows for some space and nuance. Jokowis supporters argue that the United States-China trade war has affected the governments performance and their economic situation. The opposition Prabowo-Sandiaga campaign debate the utility of the governments massive infrastructure drive and the large national debt it has allegedly generated. In India, the government cannot pass the buck of economic mismanagement much of the distress has been caused through government policy. This is visible in Modis demonetization program. First, there was the overnight banning of all 500 rupee and 1000 rupee notes which took 86 percent of all currency out of circulation. Then, there was the implementation of a goods and services tax which varies from 0 to 28 percent. The downturn means that the core base of Modis supporters falter in arguments on the economic merits for the incumbent. The other obvious similarity between the two is the rise of religious fundamentalism. While the world has witnessed a sudden shift to right-wing populist and religious politics in India and Indonesia these positions are strikingly different from their past as nationalist, secular and diverse states. The Indonesia that Sukarno built and Soeharto governed was arguably one where religion was the bedrock of society but not of the state. That has changed now with a visible societal shift towards more conservative Islam this is reflected in both presidential campaigns attempts to woo religious voters. According to Indonesias Centre for Strategic and International Studies, 47.4 percent of Muslim voters will vote for Jokowi whilse36.3 percent would vote for opposition Prabowo-Sandiaga it is evident that this is the block to sway. India entered its phase of ardent religious politics in the 1990s with the destruction of the Babri Masjid by Hindu fundamentalist forces. But it was not until 2014 and the rise of Modi that this form of virulent Hindu fascism saw fundamental changes to the structure of the state, from removing laws that aid Muslims and lower caste groups to encouraging mob violence against Muslims. From 2010 to 2017, there have been 144 cases of Muslim lynched. This form of categorical violence is slowly becoming commonplace in developing democracies. Indonesias saving grace is that it has a strong and moderate religious alternative religious groups the Nadhlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah. Indias Hindus lack this. Both countries will decide on what democracy, faith and pluralism mean to them. The 2019 of Indonesia could be the 1990s of India: where one bad decision could set it on a highly unpredictable path. *** The writer is a KRA Group researcher. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 09:12 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87324f79e 1 Editorial #Editorial,ASEAN,Indonesia,palm-oil,European-Union,Malaysia Free We call on ASEAN leaders to form a united front as a regional grouping to demonstrate full support to President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who have signed and sent a joint letter to officially protest the European Unions plan to remove palm oil from its market. Both Jokowi and Mahathir, whose countries produce over 80 percent of global palm oil output, created a historic moment for ASEAN last week because this is likely the first time members have jointly sent a protest letter to another country or trade bloc. They strongly warned they were prepared to take retaliatory measures. Officials also stated that the two countries would not hesitate to take the case to the World Trade Organization, in addition to taking unilateral actions. Both our governments view this as a deliberate, calculated and adverse economic and political strategy to remove palm oil from the EU marketplace, Jokowi and Mahathir wrote in the April 5 letter. Last month, the European Commission dropped the use of palm oil as a base for biofuel, blaming the cultivation of the commodity for severe deforestation. Palm oil-based biofuels are to be completely prohibited by 2021. Should this delegated regulation enter into force our governments shall review our relationship with the European Union as a whole, as well as its member states. This may include the reviewing of our partnership negotiations, procurement contracts and key imports from the EU, the two leaders warned. In a letter to her ASEAN counterparts dated Jan. 14, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi stated that developments in the EU were hurting the interests of ASEAN palm oil-producing states and have caused the deferral of the elevation of the ASEAN-EU dialogue relations to a strategic level. The minister urged other members of ASEAN to follow suit. With Singapore an exception, all ASEAN members are major commodity and resource exporters. Therefore, ASEAN should send a strong warning to their trading partners, especially in the Western bloc, to think twice before playing fire with Southeast Asia. The EU should remember that times have changed and ASEAN is in a quite strong position to retaliate against any punitive and discriminatory acts by their trade counterparts. Decades ago, European countries often acted arbitrarily citing various pretexts, such as the protection of the environment and human rights, to ensure their economic domination. We dont believe the EUs palm oil policy is solely based on noble motives to protect our planet. They pretend to forget the major efforts undertaken by Indonesia and Malaysia to protect the environment. Evidently the EU opts to punish ASEAN just to protect their uncompetitive products. Issues of human rights, labor protection, unfair trade practices, corruption or abuse of power are often cited by Western countries to dictate to developing nations, although they are not entirely wrong. There are still many problems, but the EU should stop using rotten tactics to force its will in trade and economic affairs. ASEAN should unite as a regional grouping to oppose such practices. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 16:39 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873272a36 1 Food jakarta,#Jakarta,food,awards,restaurant-awards Free French restaurant Amuz Gourmet has been named Restaurant of the Year at the second installment of Jakartas Best Eats Awards. Presented by Foodies magazine and Aqua Reflections, the annual awards recognize the top 40 restaurants in the capital. Divided into three categories, namely Casual Dining, Upmarket Venue and Fine Dining, the awards aim to shine a light on the amazing talent that Jakartas culinary scene has to offer. Amuz Gourmet first opened its doors more than 20 years ago. The upscale eatery is said to have impressed the judges, comprising local gourmands, with its ever-changing menu that incorporated the best seasonal produce from around the globe. Moreover, it was also recognized for offering the whole package, namely well-trained servers and an outstanding wine selection. In addition to Amuz Gourmet, the awards also recognized several all-time favorite restaurants, such as Taco Local, Lawless Burgerbar and Padang Merdeka, as well as newcomers such as Hakkasan, Vong Kitchen and Cork & Screw Country Club. Read also: Kaum Jakarta named capital's restaurant of the year The winners in the Chef of the Year and Bar of the Year categories were also announced at the awards. Fernando Sindu was named Chef of the Year for his creativity in elevating Indonesian cuisine by combining modern cooking techniques, excellent produce and different presentations, while Roosevelt was named Bar of the Year because it uses Indonesias home-grown spices and herbs in its cocktails. Foodies publisher Jed Doble said that with over 8,200 restaurants in Jakarta, it was a challenge to select the best eateries. (wng) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Kyodo News) Tokyo Thu, April 11, 2019 12:17 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8732624d7 2 People Emperor-Akihito,Empress-Michiko,wedding-anniversary Free Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko marked their 60th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, with celebratory events held during the day ahead of the emperor's abdication at the end of the month. With their elder son Crown Prince Naruhito, 59, ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1, this was the last time they celebrate their wedding anniversary during the 85-year-old emperor's reign. In 1959, then Crown Prince Akihito married Michiko Shoda, the daughter of a businessman, making her the first commoner ever to wed an heir to the imperial throne. About 530,000 people swarmed Tokyo's streets to see their wedding procession as they rode in a horse-drawn carriage from the Imperial Palace to their residence. Read also: Japan's empress-in-waiting 'insecure' but vows to serve The emperor will step down on April 30, becoming the first Japanese monarch to abdicate in more than 200 years. Although the emperor and the 84-year-old empress did not attend, a cross-party group of lawmakers and business representatives staged a festival to celebrate Emperor Akihito's 30-year reign at the National Theater in Tokyo. "We are determined to create a bright future while keeping in our mind how their majesties, the emperor and empress, have constantly stayed by the people," said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the festival, attended by an estimated 1,800 people. In the morning, the couple was congratulated by the crown prince in a celebratory event at the Imperial Palace attended by other members of the imperial family, including Crown Princess Masako, the emperor's younger son Prince Fumihito and his wife Princess Kiko. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Keshie Hernitaningtyas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 14:09 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873268fad 1 Entertainment hellboy,reboot,film-review,movie-review,Hellboy-review,Guillermo-Del-Toro,Movie,film Free Released amid a busy time at theaters, with two successful superhero movies still gracing big screens, namely Disney's latest billion-dollar franchise Captain Marvel and the 91 percent-rated Shazam! on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as the highly anticipated Avengers: Endgame only two weeks away, it's safe to say that the 2019 Hellboy already has its work cut out for it. The fact that it's a reboot instead of a sequel to Hellboy II: The Golden Army(2008) as it was initially planned added another challenge, as it meant that it involved neither the genius Guillermo del Toro as director and writer nor the iconic Ron Perlman as the main character. Eventually helmed by Nick Marshall, whose stints include directing a few episodes of popular TV series such as Game of Thrones and Westworld, with a screenplay penned by Andrew Cosby (Eureka, Haunted) and featuring David Harbour (Stranger Things) as the live-action superhero, the film has been announced as an R-rated flick, with Harbour describing it as "gory, [...] like a horror movie. There's a lot of blood in it. It's brutal." Well, Harbour didn't lie. In fact, the film was obviously deemed too brutal that so many action scenes were censored during a press screening in Jakarta up to the point that they became very annoying: one second we were watching Hellboy throw a sharp object at a monster during a bloodied fight, then abruptly the scene was cut off, as the next thing we saw was the monster already dead with gruesomely fatal wounds -- and such happened throughout the film. Some audience members could be heard voicing their disappointment toward the censors. Read also: 'Black Widow could be way darker than you think Hellboy terlalu banyak sensor, serasa nonton tv siaran lokal dengan layar segede gaban Adhitya (@niskalaaa) April 10, 2019 Unfortunately, for the fans of the previous installments, aside from the frequent censors that made the watching experience quite confusing, the reboot's plot is also a mess. The film opens with the usual storyline of an evil witch defeated by the hero, who in this case is the legendary British leader King Arthur accompanied by his trusted wizard Merlin. However, instead of killing the medieval British sorceress aka Blood Queen Nimue (Milla Jovovich) for good, they decide to mutilate her then hide the body parts (with the head still very much alive) across the country. Some years later, in a modern world where it's rather unclear whether monsters live among humans, Hellboy is seen looking for his colleague from the government organization Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense who went missing during some undercover mission. This previously-human friend, who turned out to be a monster, apparently decided to become a lucha libre wrestler in Tijuana, Mexico, and while in the ring he forces Hellboy to fight him upon seeing the latter's presence. Just before he dies, he utters something strange that confuses Hellboy and later we see him getting drunk in a bar, frustrated. In the next scene, two ugly creatures are plotting revenge against Hellboy, which involves reviving the very powerful Nimue. From here, viewers can probably already guess what's going to happen, especially those familiar with the story of King Arthur and his legendary sword excalibur. Presenting a predictable storyline is fine, especially since it's a reboot. However the rather fast-paced film offers too many subplots and characters that neither one of them is convincing or understood enough. It made an effort to be funny throughout the movie, which sometimes worked, but often times didn't. The choice to highlight a father-and-son relationship is quite interesting, however this is lazily shown in merely words between the two instead of adding flashback scenes of Hellboy's childhood or him growing up. On a positive note, the film features convincingly horrifying-looking monsters which, like Harbour said, made it look like a horror movie. So fans of the genre will probably find it an interesting enough watch. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 16:07 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87327130d 1 Food bread,bakery,food,Dutch,jakarta,Maison-Weiner Free Maison Weiner bakery has been serving authentic Dutch breads and pastries in Jakarta for 83 years, but its future hangs in the balance without a clear successor. Tucked away along the small street of Jl. Kramat II in Kwitang, Central Jakarta, Maison Weiner has a unique historical relevance in Jakarta: In 1936, it became the first bakery to open its doors in the capital, nine years before Indonesia gained independence. Maison Weiner was founded by Lee Liang Mey, who was of Chinese ancestry. Lee previously worked for a Dutch baker who taught her to bake and encouraged her to set up her own bakery. The Dutch baker gave the name Maison Weiner, said Lees grandson Heru Laksana, who manages the bakery today. Heru said his grandmother never asked what Maison Weiner meant. At first, Lee was reluctant to open her own bakery because she did not have the funds to buy the necessary equipment. But the problem was resolved when several stores in Gambir Market which was located where the National Monument (Monas) now stands allowed her to purchase the equipment on instalments. Heru has continued to use the same equipment with pride to bake his grandmother's cakes and breads. The bakery may not have many baked goods on display, but they are like no other, as they are made using the same recipes enjoyed by the Dutch residents of colonial Batavia. Mason Weiner offers ontbijtkoek, a soft Dutch spiced rye cake, and kerstkrans, a Dutch Christmas ring filled with fragrant almond paste and finished with a sugar glaze that resembles snow. Heru has maintained the bakery's original interior and exterior so his customers can experience an environment that hearkens the days of old. If you come on Saturday, there is a 30 percent discount for all cakes and pastries, because we are closed on Sunday, he said. Heru started learning the art of baking at the age of 10, when his grandmother often asked him to decorate cakes. In the 1960s, people began to have televisions at home. I was so annoyed when I was watching TV, my grandmother would suddenly ask me to help her, he recalled. Maison Weiner was the only bakery in Jakarta until around 1980. Although Lee had 15 employees, she was often overwhelmed by orders for up to 500 cakes a day. Heru's culinary passion grew out of the time Heru spent in his grandmothers kitchen. He went to Germany in 1973 to study baking and pastry for six years at Handwerkskammer Braunschweig, and then continued his studies at the Wilton School of Cake Decorating and Confectionary Art in Illinois, the United States. I am the second of five children. After my grandmother passed away in 1986, I was asked to manage Maison Weiner because I was the only person who knew about baking and pastry in my family, he said. Now 64, Heru is uncertain about Maison Weiners future, as his only son has no interest in baking or running the bakery. Why should we continue this bakery? he said. Heru does not mind if the legendary bakery closes its doors some day. What is more important to him is to transfer his knowledge and skills to others, so that Maison Wiener's legacy lives on. A baker is not just someone who bakes breads and cakes. A baker must also have a passion for art, because they must be able to make a cake that resembles a sculpture, he said. Heru runs short courses at Maison Weiner on making European breads, cakes and pastries, from baguettes to ciabatta and to sachertorte, the famous Viennese chocolate cake. We really want to teach people to make cakes [...] that are not only delicious, but also healthy and nutritious, he said. Maison Weiner's heyday ended in the 1980s as more bakeries opened in the city. Its main challenge today is to survive amid the fierce competition. Heru has followed some trends to attract new customers, such as the rainbow cake hype in 2012. However, he maintains the quality of his products to retain his loyal customers, and never uses preservatives. Although many bakeries sell Dutch breads and pastries today, Heru believes that Maison Weiner's products are still the most authentic. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arsi Agnitasari (The Jakarta Post) San Francisco, United States Thu, April 11, 2019 16:11 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8732717a7 1 Science & Tech #Google,Google,Google-Cloud,Conference,Sundar-Pichai,amazon-web-services,cloud-computing,cloud-service,technology,#technology Free Over 30,000 people gathered at the Moscone Center on Tuesday to attend the three-day Google Cloud NEXT 19 conference in San Francisco, California, the United States, slated to run until April 11. Here are some important updates shared by the tech giant during the first and second day of the conference: Introducing Anthos If you cant beat them, join them. The phrase seems fit, if not a bit exaggerated, for the new Google Cloud product announced during the first keynote. Dubbed Anthos, the new product shows how Google will compete with other cloud players such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). Anthos boasts a new open platform that allows customers to manage work across several different cloud platforms. It is said to simplify the workload of developers on-premises and in the cloud in a consistent way, to answer the top three things that customers wanted in the cloud, which includes a single programming model for any cloud. If you are using multiple computing environments, Anthos is the choice for you, said Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the first keynote of the conference. New markets for Google Cloud The conference continued with the announcement of new markets for the Google Cloud Region, which include Seoul and Salt Lake City in the US. The company stated that it would continue their support for global companies like Samsung and LG CNS in Seoul, as well as healthcare and financial services in Salt Lake City, which serve as the biggest sources of demand in the areas. Google Cloud services for the two new areas is set to be launched in 2020. Read also: Google to launch cloud service in Jakarta in 2020 Google continues to upgrade On a mission to help people shift to the cloud by using the best infrastructure, Google has also upgraded its technology in the past year. During this year's conference, the company announced its Google Cloud Run as the latest part of its serverless compute offering that will take care of customers' infrastructure management. Making his debut at the event, the new Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian mentioned several achievements in the past year, which include growth in terms of partners and developer certification. Google invests an enormous amount of money and technological skills in building the most sophisticated data center in the world, Kurian said on Tuesday. Regarding the Indonesian market, Google stated that the training program for 100,000 developers in the country was slated to be completed in 2020. Guaranteeing security posture How are you going to improve my security posture once Im on the cloud? is among the things enterprises always ask when talking about Google Cloud, according to Tim Synan, the head of Google Cloud Southeast Asia in Jakarta in March. To answer such a question, Google has always highlighted that security is something that they have built in from the start, not applying it later. Your data is your data and only your data, said Urs Holzle, Google SVP of technical infrastructure, during the Google Cloud NEXT 19 conference on Wednesday. Regarding the matter, Google boasts the only cloud that provides Access Transparency, a feature of Google Cloud that aims to increase customer trust and allows them to verify that the company will only access their data for business purposes. Kurian added that Google has no backdoor access to customer data in regard to security and privacy matters. No one at Google will access your data without your permission. You can use your encryption keys to encrypt your data." User protection services On the second day of the conference, Google introduced two brand new Google Cloud user protection services. The first one is a beta version of protection to the common cybercrime of phishing, which allows users to report unsafe URLs to Google Safe Browsing to prevent hackers from obtaining sensitive information such as emails and passwords. The second one allows enterprise costumers to have their own reCAPTCHA Enterprise feature to defend their website against fraud, which was built using a technology designed to address enterprise security needs. (dev/kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ivan Couronne (Agence France-Presse) Colorado Springs, United States Thu, April 11, 2019 15:03 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87326c8de 2 Science & Tech space,satellite,science-and-technology Free With constellations of thousands of telecommunication mini satellites expected to orbit Earth in the near future, the risk of space-debris collisions will grow. For Nobu Okada, it's an opportunity. The 46-year-old Japanese entrepreneur founded the start-up Astroscale in Singapore in 2013 with the sole aim of launching "space sweepers." The company -- now based in Tokyo -- has 71 employees. A demonstration will take place in 2020 when an Astroscale satellite will capture one of the company's own mini satellites and try and nudge it out of its orbit -- with the goal of pushing it into the atmosphere to burn up. The Europeans and Americans are developing similar concepts, but the idea of tidying up in space remains an experimental one. AFP caught up with Nobu Okada at the 35th Space Symposium -- a large meeting of the space industry in the US state of Colorado. Is there a market for taking down space debris? "One guy told me, Nobu, there's no market, nobody pays money to remove space debris. And when I heard there's no market, I feel this (is) a good news. If there's no market. There's no competition." "The density of space debris has reached the critical level where chain collisions can happen at any time in the near future. So, if we do not take any actions, space is not sustainable anymore." "So, somebody has to clean up the space." Who is going to pay? "The future debris will mostly come from constellations. A certain percentage of the satellites will go defunct in space. And they have to be replenished with new satellites to keep the coverage. To do that, they have to remove the oldest satellites to make sure their orbital plane is clean. "The other business line is that we also have to clean up the debris which are already up there. And these are mostly littered by the governments. We should prioritize which debris are the most critical and have to be removed with high priority, with government money, like rocket upper stages." "Two years ago, they were just listening, but now they are beginning to take responsibility." Read also: In space, the US sees a rival in China Any clients yet? What will your services cost? "We have multiple projects with potential customers. "Before we set up this company, people had no idea how much money, it would cost to remove one debris, because there were no proven technologies. People were thinking 100, 300 or 500 million dollars to remove one object. But our price -- it depends on the situation of the objects in space -- but it is far, far less than that." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Greg McCartney (Kyodo News) Tokyo Thu, April 11, 2019 20:07 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87327b67f 2 Entertainment Lee-Ritenour,six-string-theory,guitar Free Guitar master Lee Ritenour is answering questions in his Blue Note Tokyo dressing room with his Gibson Les Paul strapped on and fingers flying over the fretboard, warming up just before hosting and also playing in the finale performance of his latest global Six String Theory Competition. "I feel it's turned out to be a wonderful legacy for me," the 67-year-old Grammy-winning musician says of the biennial competition, whose latest edition wrapped up with the spirited March 16 performance designed to showcase the nine young winners -- six in guitar and three in rhythm section. The competition grew out of Ritenour's landmark 2010 album "6 String Theory" and has been on an expansive trajectory since. "It was my dream to feature all different styles of guitar playing with as many legendary guitar players on each of the styles, and often collaborating with one another," he said about the album. Those players included such icons as George Benson, B.B. King, John Scofield, Steve Lukather of Toto, Slash, Keb' Mo', Joe Bonnamassa and Mike Stern. "It was my idea to (also) invite somebody completely brand new...and I thought how cool would it be if we had a competition, a worldwide competition, to invite some new person who has never really recorded. And so we did that, and the winner was a classical guitarist named Shon Boublil from Canada," who appeared on the album, Ritenour said. This latest "2018 edition" saw about 800 aspiring musicians -- 500 or so guitarists and around 300 rhythm section musicians -- sign up to compete from more than 60 countries. The competition's website (https://sixstringtheory.com/) drew visits from people in 190 countries, Ritenour said proudly. The guitar competition has expanded to six style divisions -- jazz, rock, blues, classical, acoustic and rhythm. The rhythm section, added in 2012, has three divisions-- piano, bass and drums. "This year was particularly young -- the oldest is 26 and the youngest 18," he said, while stressing, "There is no age limit. You have to be 16 or older but it goes all the way up to 100. And we've had musicians entering in their 70s, 80s you know. So it's wonderful to see the young talent around the world entering and all the way up in each generation." The competition, which now has more than 60 notable expert judges, has also attracted a number of big-name sponsors. "For instance, Blue Note Tokyo has been a sponsor for the last several years and part of the price for them is to bring everybody here and pay for their flights, put them up, and bring them here for three days, and then we have a rehearsal. And they get to see the sights a little bit and of course perform at the famous Blue Note." Other key backers have been musical instruments maker Yamaha Corp., and the highly regarded Berklee College of Music in Boston. The 2018 edition winners came from all over the world -- Jazz Guitar: Cecil Alexander (USA), Rock Guitar: Johannes Persson (Sweden), Blues Guitar: Hayden Fogle (USA), Acoustic Guitar: Eric Jayne (USA), Classical Guitar: Hedvika Svendova (Czech, France), Rhythm Guitar: Kaspar Jalily (France), Piano: Holger Marjamaa (Estonia, USA), Bass: Petar Pera Krstajic (Serbia, USA), Drums: Euan Leslie (Scotland, USA). Ironically, Ritenour said he "always hated" competitions "but I say to everyone, and it's written on my website as well, that the competition is within yourself to make yourself better." In the audience to watch the final performance was Japan's top entrant, 32-year-old Yusuke Yabui from the city of Okayama in the western part of the country. Yabui placed as a finalist in the piano division on the strength of his performance video titled "Michael Jackson's Songs Medley." He traveled to Tokyo to personally thank Ritenour as well as congratulate the top pianist, Holger Marjamaa, with a handshake. "Holger is a really great pianist who was able to take first prize, so of course I respect him a lot. And I also hope I'll be able to perform with keyboardists like him from the Six String Theory Competition in the future," Yabui said. "I actually had some hesitation before entering, because in the strict sense I'm not a jazz/fusion pianist but an electronic organ player. And I was afraid I might not be eligible as an applicant. But I inspired myself to do it. And I was selected as one of the finalists." Yabui also said the competition has encouraged him to keep pursuing his vision of "grafting Japanese traditional music timbre and rhythms" onto music from throughout the world. Read also: Elton John, Sting, Chick Corea top big-name Montreux bill Meanwhile, the next Six String Theory Competition will be held from 2020. "Just look for the announcements," Ritenour said. "Of course the competition is closed right now, (but) you can go around the website, you can see the pictures, you can see a description of what it takes to join...the fee is very nominal, it's 25 dollars." But before that, Ritenour has some music of his own to attend to. "I've been planning to do this for a long time and finally most of the material is ready. So I'm finally going to do a solo album guitar record. Which sounds simple but of all the 45 albums I've done, I've never done a solo guitar album. So I'm excited to do that. That'll be the next big one." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 12:04 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87326090f 4 Business APINDO,economic-roadmap,president-elect,recommendations Free The Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) is drafting an economic road map that will be submitted to the elected president. Apindo deputy chairwoman Shinta Kamdani said the draft economic road map would reflect the aspirations, hopes and recommendations of the business community. She said the road map would be drafted based on the results of a survey and focus group discussion that was participated in by businesspeople from various sectors. The road map will focus on two things sectorial issues and inter-sectoral issues, Shinta said in Jakarta on Wednesday as quoted by kontan.co.id. The sectoral issues will discuss issues in various sectors, such as manufacturing, tourism, food and agriculture, energy infrastructure and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), she added. Meanwhile, she said, the inter-sectoral aspects would touch on macroeconomic issues, employment, taxation, banking and financing, regulation and bureaucracy. We will explain the road map so that the government and business community can gain an understanding and see how improvements can be made, Shinta added. She said the road map was expected to be completed in August. We hope the road map can help push up economic growth, which has been stagnant at about 5 percent in recent years, she added. Meanwhile, an economist from Atmajaya Catholic University ,Agustinus Prasetyantoko, said to push economic growth up, the government would need to focus on economic expansion through the improvement of productivity and participation of the private sector. (bbn) Logistics staff load Chinese cultural relics transported from Italy, which have been cleared by the customs, into vehicles, at Beijing International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, April 10, 2019. A total of 796 Chinese cultural relics arrived at Beijing International Airport at 6:54 a.m. Wednesday after an eight-hour flight from Italy. The group of Chinese artifacts were first noticed by a unit of Carabinieri, or the national gendarmerie of Italy, on the local relics auction market in 2007, which was followed by a domestic judicial trial. (Xinhua/Li He) BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A total of 796 Chinese cultural relics arrived at Beijing International Airport at 6:54 a.m. Wednesday after an eight-hour flight from Italy. The group of Chinese artifacts were first noticed by a unit of Carabinieri, or the national gendarmerie of Italy, on the local relics auction market in 2007, which was followed by a domestic judicial trial. China's National Cultural Heritage Administration immediately contacted its Italian counterpart after hearing the news and started the repatriation of the relics. After over a decade, the Italian court made the final decision to return the 796 artifacts to China. On March 23, China and Italy exchanged related certificates. According to Beijing customs, the recovery is the biggest transfer of cultural and historical artifacts to China in nearly two decades. "As a Chinese, I am so proud to witness the return of these relics after years of effort," said Zhang Yanmin with the Beijing International Airport. China will display the items in Beijing next year as part of a wider plan to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Italy and China. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 17:27 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8732749df 1 Business bumi-resources,payment,installation Free Mining company PT BUMI Resources has confirmed that it processed on Tuesday a fifth payment of US$19.85 million -- $11.11 million in principal and $8.74 million in interest against Tranche A, a debt restructuring instrument. BUMI director and corporate secretary Dileep Srivastava said with the latest payment, the company had paid off a total of $239.39 million consisting of US$145.48 million for Tranche A principal and US$93.91 million for interest, including accrued and back interest. The next quarterly payment for Tranche A is due on July 19, Srivastava said in a statement received by The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. Kontan.co.id recorded that in 2016, BUMI and a number of creditors agreed to pay the companys debt through the conversion of shares worth $1.99 billion, consisting of Tranche A and B, respectively $600 million, while Tranche C was worth $406.99 million, for separate creditors. Srivastava said payment-in-kind coupons from April 11, 2018 to April 9, 2019 on Tranches B and C were also being capitalized. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani and Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 There have been calls for the General Elections Commission (KPU) to postpone polling for the upcoming concurrent elections among overseas voters in Malaysia, which is scheduled for Sunday, following allegations of vote-rigging. A video of people raiding an empty store in Selangor, Malaysia, and unpacking several bags containing marked ballots in favor of President Joko Jokowi Widodo and running mate Maruf Amin circulated on social media on Thursday. The video shows people holding up the ballots and claiming that they had been marked in favor of Jokowi and Maruf in the presidential election and a NasDem Party legislative candidate. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ruslan Sangadji (The Jakarta Post) Palu, Central Sulawesi Thu, April 11, 2019 08:10 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87324c77c 1 Business central-sulawesi,investment,target,2019,KEK-Palu,Morowali,industrial-park Free Central Sulawesi has set its sights on generating Rp 20.08 trillion (US$1.42 billion) in investments this year, following the earthquake and tsunami of Sept. 28, 2018 that particularly devastated the provincial capital of Palu and surrounding areas. Data from the Online Single Submission (OSS) system show that 400 local and foreign investors are interested in the province. We are optimistic that we can achieve this target, because many investors want to do business in Central Sulawesi, in both the Special Economic Area (KEK) in Palu and the Morowali industrial estate, said Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola on Tuesday, after attending the Regional Investment Forum 2019 in Palu. Along with all regents and mayors in the province, the forum saw the attendance of representatives from 150 companies that are investing or seeking to invest in the province. Longki said the target was set to achieve 6.8 percent growth in the provincial economy this year. He added that he was optimistic that the target would be achieved, because the province had recorded economic growth of 6.3 percent in early 2019. The Indonesian economy recorded 5.17 percent growth in 2018. It means that the National Development Planning Agency's (Bappnas) concerns that economic growth in Central Sulawesi would slow will not occur. Our economic growth will improve, the governor said. He added that although many investors had expressed interest in investing in the province, a number of barriers still remained because of poor electricity access and the poor condition of roads and seaports. In Central Sulawesi, including Palu, we still see frequent blackouts because of the electricity shortage, said Longki. State-owned electricity company PLN was expected to immediately address the shortage to allay investors' doubts about entering the province. On the other hand, Longki guaranteed a smooth licensing process as long as investors met all requirements under prevailing laws. For example, investment permits for KEK Palu could be processed within an hour. President director Andi Mulhanan Tombolotutu of PT Palu Bangun Sulawesi Tengah (BPST), which manages KEK Palu, said that two companies were currently operating in the area: pine resin manufacturer PT Hong Thai International and energy trading company PT Asbuton Jaya Abadi. The two companies have been operating in KEK Palu for a year and PT Hong Thai is exporting its products to China, Thailand and India, said Andi. AA worker marks a stainless steel hot rolled coil (HRC) that just came out from the machine in Morowali Industrial Parks HRC plant in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, on Sept. 18, 2017. The industrial complex smelts nickel and processes it into stainless steel. (JP/Stefani Ribka) Meanwhile, five other companies were building factories in the KEK, including magnesium manufacturer PT Indo Mangan Industri and PT Hashimoto Gemilang Indonesia, which produces chips using palm kernel shells. The other companies were a smelter operator, an active carbon producer and a coconut products manufacturer. Andi said the combined investment of the five companies totaled more than Rp 5 trillion. KEK Palu had also signed a cooperation agreement with state-owned security and defense manufacturer PT Pindad Indonesia to supply 36 products in eastern Indonesia. PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) senior vice president Slamet Viktor Panggabean said the park currently had 29 companies that filled only 30 percent of the 2,000-hectare industrial park. Slamet added that three other companies, including a carbon steel producer, would soon start building factories in the park. The planned development included a lithium battery factory that would be the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia. They are arranging their permits [now], he added. About 201,000 foreign workers and 31,000 local workers were currently employed in the IMIP. Slamet said the industrial park planned to establish a manufacturing polytechnic university to gradually reduce the number of foreign workers over the next five years. We need a lot of workers. One factory needs about 1,500 workers, he said. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11 2019 For more than 20 years, Iwan Sarmidi has lived and worked as a fisherman in northern Jakarta. Lately, a rumor has spread in his village that the government will ban fishing around the US$40 billion reclamation projects in Jakarta Bay. Like many of his fellow poor fishermen in Muara Angke, the father of four keeps thinking of how his family would survive if he eventually lost his job. I dont see the government seriously talking about the zoning plan for traditional fishermen in Jakarta, Iwan said. The Jakarta administration is drafting a bylaw on the coastal strategic area spatial plan and the zoning plan on coastal areas and small islands, which is expected to be complete by the end of the year. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Winny Tang (The Jakarta Post) JAKARTA Thu, April 11, 2019 The government aims to improve the welfare of Indonesian fishermen through digital technology by collaborating with a start-up technology company amid challenges in the fisheries industry. Through the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, the government has introduced a program that includes training and workshops for at least 1 million fishermen in 300 coastal areas or cities around Indonesia. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 13:58 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873267df6 1 Business Grab,drivers,merchants,income,survey Free Grab, a ride-hailing company, contributed Rp 46.2 trillion ($3.3 billion) to Indonesias informal economy last year in the form of additional income for drivers and food merchants, according to a survey released on Thursday. The contribution comes from the companys three business units: GrabBike (Rp 15.7 trillion), GrabCar (Rp 9.7 trillion) and GrabFood (Rp 20.8 trillion). The survey was conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Tenggara Strategics, a sister company of The Jakarta Post, in partnership with Grab. It interviewed 2,600 partners from five major cities: Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Makassar and Medan. CSIS economist Yose Rizal Damuri told reporters in Jakarta that the survey was part of a series of CSIS studies into the impact of the digital economy in Indonesia. Theres never been a significant reduction of informal employment. So maybe we need a new paradigm where its not about reducing informality but increasing informal income, he said. The survey shows that ride-hailing services allowed drivers to double their monthly average income from Rp 1.9 million to Rp 3.9 million for motorcycle drivers and from Rp 3.3 million to Rp 7 million for car drivers. Ride-hailing was also a popular means of informal employment as 33 percent of car drivers and 38 percent of motorcycle drivers had no income prior to joining the company. Food merchants, all of whom were micro and small businesses, also experienced an average 25 percent increase in daily sales from an average of Rp1.4 million to Rp1.85 million. However, the sales of 16 percent of vendors did not increase beyond the lowest income bracket of less than Rp 500,000 per day. Tenggara also calculated the economic contribution of Kudo, an online-to-offline platform, which was acquired by Grab but is not a ride-hailing platform. Kudo contributed Rp 2.7 trillion to the informal economy. The University of Indonesia recently released a similar survey on Grabs archrival, Go-Jek, which contributed an estimated Rp 43 trillion via its similar Go-Food (Rp 18 trillion), Go-Ride (Rp 16.5 trillion) and Go-Car (Rp 8.5 trillion) business units. (bbn) Topics : Grab drivers merchants income survey Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya and N. Adri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta and Balikpapan Thu, April 11, 2019 Resource-rich Kalimantan is among the most diverse regions in the country. With a direct border with Malaysia in the north, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island hosts communities of multiple races, ethnicities and religions. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party have traditionally dominated Kalimantan, resulting in the victory of PDI-P member Joko Jokowi Widodo as president and Jusuf Kalla as vice president in 2014. But the conservative 212 movement, which created a string of sectarian rallies to prosecute former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, sent ripples across Kalimantan, which is seeing a change in its political landscape. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 17:56 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873275509 1 Politics kawalpemilu,campaign,2019GeneralElections,2019-presidential-election,#2019PresidentialElection,#2019GeneralElections Free The website KawalPemilu.org has officially invited the campaign teams of incumbent Joko Jokowi Widodo and Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto to use its platform to monitor the vote counting process on election day. The website, established by a community of volunteers working together with election watchdog Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (Netgrit), will gather photos of actual C1 vote tally forms. The forms record the final vote count of each polling station, from all stations and subdistricts across the country. KawalPemilu founder Ainun Najib, an Indonesian information and technology expert residing in Singapore, extended the offer through a letter on Wednesday, inviting both campaigns to use the website as a back-up to record the vote tally documents from each polling station. KawalPemilu is neutral, independent, open and only sides with the data, Ainun said in the letter. He argued that the involvement of polling witnesses from both the Jokowi and Prabowo campaign teams on the KawalPemilu platform would improve KawalPemilus independence. At the same time, the involvement of both candidates would also show the Indonesian people, who are currently divided, that everyone wants a healthy competition and a clean, peaceful, and transparent election, he further said. KawalPemilu.org is a crowdsourcing project run by a number of netizens, mostly experts in IT. It was first launched for the 2014 presidential race to safeguard transparency in the competition between then-candidates Jokowi and Prabowo. Jokowi-Maruf campaign team member and National Awakening Party (PKB) politician Lukman Edy said that Jokowi polling witnesses would be encouraged to upload photos of the C1 forms to KawalPemilu on a voluntary basis. Internally, we also have our own IT system, he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno campaign team spokesperson Miftah Nur Sabri said Prabowo polling witnesses would be encouraged to do the same. The system that Ainun has built is very good, Miftah said on a talkshow on KompasTV on Wednesday. I think both [Jokowi and Prabowo camps] can support peoples participation in ensuring that the election process is transparent. (kmt) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 12:39 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873263ec4 1 City crime,stabbing,Depok,online-games Free A man reportedly stabbed a shopkeeper in Cimpaeun subdistrict, Depok, West Java, on Wednesday because he thought the victim was laughing at him. The victim, Hari Alamsyah, 24, said that he and his friend were playing an online game on their mobile phones at the time. While playing, Hari and his friend occasionally laughed. At one point, Hari laughed at the exact time the alleged perpetrator, identified as N, was passing by. "Maybe the perpetrator thought I was laughing at him," Hari said, adding that N then scolded him. What does that mean? What did I do wrong? N reportedly demanded before attacking Hari and stabbing him in the abdomen, leg and back. Hari said he and his friend thought that the incident was over when the perpetrator left, but N came back with a machete. However, a crowd had gathered and before N had the chance to attack Hari a second time, he was reportedly restrained and forcibly taken to the Cimanggis Police in Depok. Depok Police crime unit chief Comr. Deddy Kurniawan confirmed the incident. "Yes, the perpetrator is currently being questioned by the Cimanggis Police," he said on Wednesday as quoted by Kompas.com. Due to the incident, Hari received two stitches in his abdomen and 11 stitches in his leg. He only suffered scratches on his back. (sau) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sausan Atika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 Kemang has long been known as an upscale neighborhood in South Jakarta, a favorite area for locals and expatriates alike with many trendy cafes, clubs, shops and art galleries. However, frequent visitors and residents know that walking around the neighborhood, infamous for traffic congestion and floods during the rainy season, can be difficult. In a bid to improve Kemang, the Jakarta administration is set to roll out a sidewalk-revitalization program next month as part of a citywide program aimed at providing better facilities for pedestrians. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Victor Mambor (The Jakarta Post) Jayapura Thu, April 11, 2019 19:36 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87327b4cb 1 Politics Polish-nationals,treason,treason-case,Papua,West-Papua-Liberation-Army,West-Papua,self-determination Free Prosecutors have demanded 10 years in prison for Jakub Fabian Skrzypski, a Polish national who was arrested in Wamena in August last year, for his alleged role in treasonous activities. The prosecutors said they would demand the same sentence for Simon Magal, who was arrested in Timika on Sept. 1 last year. His charges are also treason-related, Latifah Anum Siregar, Skrzypski's and Simon's told The Jakarta Post. Anum said the pair were charged under Article 106 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on treason and that prosecutors had cited several items of evidence, namely two handphones, one iPod, a passport and screenshots of conversations between Simon and Skrzypski, a backpack and a notebook. She said the evidence was not sufficient to prove treason but rather attempted treason. Police accused the Pole of involvement in the handing over of hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Read also: Activists call for release of Papuan student following arrest of Polish man During the hearing, we found no reason to acquit the defendants. Both have to take responsibility for their treasonous acts, said prosecutor Ricardo. The defendants will read their defense on April 15. Skrzypski was arrested at Habema Lake in Jayawijaya, according to the police. The police claim he was on his way to film a handover of hundreds of rounds of ammunition to a separatist group. Simon was accused of helping Skrzypski contact the armed group. The United Kingdom-based organization TAPOL has demanded the immediate release of Simon and Skrzypski and a fair trial. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 13:53 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8732679a0 1 City KPK,corruption-case,corruption-suspect,PPPChairmanRomahurmuziy,PPP,pretrial-motion,pretrial,Religious-Affairs-Ministry Free Former United Development Party (PPP) chairman Muhammad Romy Romahurmuziy has filed a pretrial motion to challenge his suspect status in an alleged bribery case centering on a promotion at the Religious Affairs Ministry. The Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] has received a letter from the South Jakarta District Court on the first hearing of the pretrial motion filed by Muhammad Romahurmuziy, slated for April 22, the antigraft body spokesperson Febri Diansyah told journalists on Wednesday evening. He added the KPK would face the suit in the courtroom and its legal division was currently studying the motion. Were sure that we conducted the arrest by the book based on sufficient evidence. Therefore, our investigation against the suspect is valid, the spokesperson added. On March 16, the KPK arrested and named Romy, an ally of President Joko Jokowi Widodo -- who is seeking a second term in office -- a suspect in a bribery case involving the Religious Affairs Ministry. Graft busters suspected the PPP politician had accepted Rp 300 million (US$21,180) for rigging a promotion at the ministry. The KPK also named two other officials suspects of graft. The antigraft body has postponed the detention of Romy as he was hospitalized in the National Police Hospital in East Jakarta due to illness. We are still waiting for more information from the hospitals doctors before determining our action against the suspect, Febri said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 15:58 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87326fe74 1 City MRT,South-Tangerang,extension Free The capital's satellite city of South Tangerang in Banten expects the extension of MRT Jakarta to pass the area by 2022. It would be more or less 20 kilometers from Lebak Bulus, cut through to Jl. Raya Ciputat, turn around in Pamulang and [end in] Rawabuntu, South Tangerang Deputy Mayor Benyamin Davnie said on Wednesday. He added that his side was expecting the extended MRT to commence operation in South Tangerang by 2020. He went on to say that the MRT might reach Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang eventually. In addition, Benyamin claimed that the city administration had received 20 feeder buses from the Transportation Ministry to support the MRT. "The preparation has progressed. Therefore, [feeder buses] would serve up to the neighborhood unit [RT] or community unit [RW] level." The MRT is important because up to 50 percent of South Tangerang residents work in Jakarta, Benyamin explained. The South Tangerang administration is currently looking into sources of funding as it would not use any of the citys budget for the project. MRT Jakarta transit-oriented-development and planning department head Seni Pranata confirmed during a discussion in South Tangerang on Wednesday that the project was called Extension Link MRT Phase 1. "This has been discussed with the Transportation Ministry, [both] city administrations, even the South Tangerang mayor," he said as quoted by kompas.com. However, Seno declined to provide further details, saying the project was still under discussion, including the route and timeline to commence operation. The construction of MRT Jakartas phase 2, which would span from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to Kota in West Jakarta, is expected to be completed by 2024. (sau) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam, Riau Islands Thu, April 11, 2019 17:40 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873274d35 1 Business airfare-surge,Tourism-Minister-Arif-Yahya,Transportation-Minister-Budi-Karya-Sumadi,measures Free Tourism Minister Arief Yahya has called on Transportation Minister Budki Karya Sumadi to issue a regulation that would require airlines to lower their prices for economic-class tickets to help boost the tourism industry. We hope that the transportation minister will issue a regulation to push airfares down and take effect this week, Arief said on Wednesday. Arief referred to a statement made by Budi, who said he would issue a ministerial decree requiring airlines to allocate only 20 percent of tickets for full services, 20 percent for subclass services with ticket prices 70 percent of the maximum prices. Budi said such a new decree would be needed if airlines failed to significantly slash ticket prices after the issuance of two regulations, namely Transportation Ministerial Regulation No. 20/2019 on airfares for domestic commercial airlines and Ministerial Decree No. 72/2019 on maximum airfare. Airlines play a large role in boosting both domestic and foreign tourist arrivals, particularly for island destinations like Batam, Bintan, Lombok and Labuhan Bajo, Arief said, adding that the airlines had passed the one-week deadline that was given to them. According to the Indonesia Tour and Travel Agency Association (ASITA), airfares increased up to 100 percent in December 2018. After the two regulations were issued late last month, several airlines had cut their prices, but many other airlines had failed to take action. Arief said many destinations had been affected by the recent increase of domestic airfares because those destinations relied very much on tourists arriving on airplanes. Tourism-related businesses hope that the airfares will go back to normal. A small increase is okay, but it should not be done suddenly; it has shocked a lot of people, he said on the sideline of the Visit Indonesia Tourism Organization (VITO) Annual Meeting in Batam. Meanwhile, ASITA chairman Andika Lim expressed his concerns over the fact that the new government regulations had failed to decrease ticket prices. Because of the high prices, he said many Indonesians preferred to travel abroad through Malaysia or Singapore, instead of traveling to Batam and Bintan in Riau Islands province and Karimun Java in Central Java. Indonesians prefer to travel abroad through Singapore and Malaysia because of the high ticket prices [in Indonesia]. It is counterproductive to the efforts of the Tourism Ministry to boost the countrys tourism, Lim said. Since airlines increased their airfares last year, arrivals at the Hang Nadim Airport in Batam has decreased significantly. In January 2018, the number of arrivals at the airport was recorded at 504,556, but by January 2019, the figure had dropped to 389,492. Meanwhile, arrivals in February 2018 was recorded at 453,033 and in February 2019, the number decreased to only 314,474. The decrease was caused by high airplane ticket prices and the change in the free baggage policy of each airline, Lim added. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Costas Pitas and Kate Holton (Reuters) London, United Kingdom Thu, April 11, 2019 18:46 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873278880 2 World #Britain,#Ecuador,UK,arrested,Julian-Assange,ecuador,embassy Free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy, where he has been holed up for nearly seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault investigation. A video posted online showed an agitated, frail-looking man with white hair and a white beard being carried out of the central London building by at least seven men. "Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador," police said. Police said they arrested Assange after being "invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean government's withdrawal of asylum." He was taken into custody at a central London police station and will be brought before Westminster Magistrates' Court later. Assange took refuge in 2012 in Ecuador's London embassy, behind the luxury department store Harrods, to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. Sweden later dropped the investigation, but Assange was arrested on Thursday for breaking the rules of his original bail in London. He feared being extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks. Assange's relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno's personal life. Moreno had previously said Assange has violated the terms of his asylum. Moreno said that he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty. "The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules," Moreno said. WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated Assange's political asylum in violation of international law. To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. But to others, he is a dangerous rebel who has undermined the security of the United States. Supporters of Assange had argued that living in the cramped conditions without access to sunlight had damaged his health. Sweden closed its preliminary investigation into a suspected rape in 2017 as there was "no reason to believe that the decision to hand him (Assange) over to Sweden could be implemented within a reasonable timeframe". But then Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny said at the time that the probe could be reopened should the situation change. "If he at a later time were to make himself available, I can decide to immediately resume the preliminary investigation," Ny, who has since retired, said in a 2017 statement. The statute of limitations for rape in Sweden is 10 years, unless it is deemed to be aggravated, in which case the ability to prosecute runs for longer. The Swedish Prosecution Authority had no immediate comment on Thursday regarding the news of Assanges arrest or whether a probe could be reopened. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, April 12 2019 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (Courtesy of PBSI) Indonesian favorite mens singles badminton player Anthony Sinisuka Ginting took revenge against Japans Kenta Nishimoto in the second round of the 2019 Singapore Open on Thursday, earning himself a quarterfinal spot. Indonesian shuttlers have always found the Japanese to be tough opponents. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, April 12 2019 Go-Jek and Grab, a local ride-hailing duopoly, contributed a total of Rp 93.1 trillion (US$6.56 billion) to Indonesias informal economy last year through additional income for drivers and food merchants, according to different surveys. Grab, according to a survey released on Thursday, contributed Rp 46.2 trillion through three business units: GrabBike with Rp 15.7 trillion, GrabCar with Rp 9.7 trillion and GrabFood with Rp 20.8 trillion. Kudo, an Indonesia-based online payment start-up, which was acquired by Grab in April 2017, contributed another Rp 2.7 trillion. Including Kudo, Grabs total contribution to the economy was Rp 48.9 trillion. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Fri, April 12 2019 Deal: Delegates from Indonesia and the Philippines sign an agreement during a meeting in Makati City, the Philippines, on April 1. (Courtesy of the Indonesian Embassy in Manila) Makati City, the Philippines Indonesia and the Philippines have vowed to improve trade ties. Both countries have agreed to seek ways to eliminate tariff and nontariff barriers, especially in agricultural and food products. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Irfa Ampri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, April 12 2019 Indonesia is blessed with abundant tourism potential, but the country is equally prone to disasters. Last year alone thousands died in disasters that hit Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara and Palu, Central Sulawesi, which together suffered close to Rp 35 trillion (US$2.41 billion) in economic losses. With a tsunami coupled with soil liquefaction in Palu, Indonesians woke up to a new, terrible kind of disaster. Following major disasters in Indonesia some facilities have yet to be rebuilt and people need several years to rebuild their lives. Thus, subnational gross national product usually shrinks following such disasters, followed by more poverty. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, April 11, 2019 11:10 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87325afe4 1 SE Asia #DeathPenalty,death-penalty,capital-punishment,#CapitalPunishment,Amnesty-International,Indonesia,#Indonesia Free Indonesia sentenced to death 48 people last year, including 15 foreigners convicted of drug crimes, according to the latest global report on capital punishment by human rights organization Amnesty International. In its annual report released on Wednesday, Amnesty explained that of the 48 death sentences, 39 were in drug-related cases, eight were for murder and one for terrorism. In 2017, 10 foreigners were among 47 individuals sentenced to death. At least 308 convicts were on death row by the end of last year, awaiting their execution without a clear date. Despite its stance on capital punishment, Indonesia has positioned itself as a human rights pioneer in Southeast Asia. But in 2018, the country observed a moratorium on executions for the second year in a row after the government under President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo executed 18 inmates convicted of drug-related offenses, including foreigners, in three batches between 2015 and 2016. Nonetheless, Amnestys records show that Indonesia has not taken any steps toward abolishing the death penalty, much to the frustration of activists who point out that Indonesia is an initiator of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). The country is currently also seeking a fifth term on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). As a pioneer of human rights in Southeast Asia, Indonesia actually has a wider chance to progress from the moratorium [to abolition], said Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid. It is ironic that Indonesia has yet to take any formal steps to abolish the death penalty when the global trends show positive progress. Neighboring Malaysia has even announced an initiative to reform the punishment. Amnestys report shows a global decrease in executions from 2017 to 2018, down by 31 percent, from 993 to 690 executions the lowest number in the past decade. The number of death sentences globally also slightly dropped from 2,591 in 2017 to 2,531 in 2018. Known proponents of capital punishment have even started to abandon it last year. For instance, Gambia declared a moratorium on executions, while Burkina Faso abolished capital punishment for general crimes and Malaysia announced a death penalty reform after previously decided to halt executions. Usman said that eliminating the death penalty could level up Indonesia's diplomatic efforts to save roughly 188 Indonesian citizens on death row abroad. Well, how can Indonesia convince other countries to save its citizens from capital punishment if Indonesia maintains a legal basis to practice inhumane punishments at home?" Usman urged the House of Representatives to push the government into scrapping the death sentence in the Criminal Code (KUHP). Lawmaker Charles Honoris of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who attended the report's launch, said that capital punishment was ineffective in curbing crimes, particularly drug offenses, given that the number of drug-related cases continued to increase in the past few years. However, he shifted the responsibility to the government and the President, saying that the House was divided over the issue, with few lawmakers daring to openly voice their support for abolishing capital punishment. Therefore, the political will of the President was key to starting the process of repealing the death penalty. The government softened its stance in the past few years by recategorizing the death penalty in the Criminal Code revision bill as an "alternative punishment" that could be commuted to life imprisonment if the convict showed good behavior. However, the drafts deliberation has progressed at a snail's pace. (ipa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Sara Hussein (Agence France-Presse) Tokyo, Japan Thu, April 11, 2019 19:15 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87327aa1e 2 SE Asia Philippines,human,species,archeology,HomoFloriensis Free The human family tree has acquired a new branch with the unearthing of a previously unknown species of human that lived on an island in today's Philippines some 50,000 years ago. The species, dubbed Homo luzonensis after the island of Luzon where its remains were found, is not a direct ancestor of modern day humans, but rather a distant ancient relative. But the discovery, published in the journal Nature on Thursday, adds to a growing body of evidence that human evolution is not as linear as was once thought. It also raises questions, including how the species arrived on the island and who its ancestors were. The "remarkable discovery... will no doubt ignite plenty of scientific debate over the coming weeks, months and years", said Matthew Tocheri, associate professor of anthropology at Canada's Lakehead University, in a review commissioned by Nature. Callao Cave on Luzon Island, in the Philippines, is seen in a view taken from the rear of the first chamber of the cave, where the fossils of newly identified hominin species Homo luzonensis were discovered in the direction of the second chamber in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters April 10, 2019. (Callao Cave Archaeology Project/Handout via REUTERS/File) The researchers from France, the Philippines and Australia found the remains in the Callo Cave, where a bone dating back 67,000 years was discovered in 2007. It was not initially clear which type of early human that bone came from, but more recently the researchers discovered seven teeth and five different bones at the site, dating back between 50,000 and 67,000 years. With more evidence to examine, from at least three individuals, they were able to build the case that the remains came from a previously unknown type of human. "From the beginning, we realised the unusual characteristics of these fossils," Florent Detroit, who co-led the study, told AFP at a press briefing. "We completed the comparisons and analyses, and it confirmed that this was something special, unlike any previously described species of hominins in the homo genus," added Detroit, a palaeoanthropologist at France's Musee de l'Homme. - 'A new species' - In particular, the teeth they found had a surprising combination of elements from different early humans. "It's a mixture that we haven't seen in other species," said Detroit. "And that was what told us, among other things, that this doesn't correspond to what we know today, so we have described a new species." But the discovery raises many questions, including how Homo luzonensis got to the island, which researchers say has always a required "a substantial sea crossing" to reach from the mainland. Researchers are also as yet unsure which of the more ancient human precursors recorded in the fossil record in Africa Homo luzonensis may be descended from. A handout image made available by Florent Detroit and taken on August 9, 2011 shows a view of the excavation in the Callao Cave in the north of Luzon Island, in the Philippines, where an international multidisciplinary team discovered a new hominin species, Homo Luzonensis. (Agence France Presse/Armand SALVADORE NUJARES / Florent DETROIT) For a long time, theories of evolution centred around the idea that an early species called Homo erectus began dispersing from Africa between 1.5 million to two million years ago. Under that theory, other early humans stayed put in Africa, where they eventually died out. But the theory has been challenged by discoveries in recent years of species that do not appear to be descended from Homo erectus, including Homo floresiensis, the so-called "hobbit" found in 2004 on an Indonesian island. The discovery of Homo luzonensis "provides yet more evidence that hints that H. erectus might not have been the only globe-trotting early hominin", wrote Tocheri. - 'A whole lot more interesting' - Intriguingly, both of the island-dwelling early humans share some characteristics with very old human species recorded in Africa. In particular, the newly discovered luzonensis has a foot bone that is unlike any of its known human contemporaries but closely resembles those of a human species known to have existed in Africa around two to three million years earlier. Luzonensis also has curved finger and toe bones, suggesting climbing may have been an important part of its behavior -- something associated more with much earlier human species. But Detroit said for now researchers believe luzonensis most likely walked upright rather than lived in trees. The remains also suggest that the species was small, perhaps standing less than four feet tall. One theory holds that the peculiar features of luzonensis and its island cousin floresiensis could be the result of their habitat, with the unique and isolated surroundings prompting them to evolve characteristics reminiscent of their ancient forebears. But definitive evidence on that front remains to be collected, and so far efforts to extract DNA from the new specimens has been unsuccessful. "One thing can be said for certain," wrote Tocheri. "Our picture of hominin evolution in Asia... just got even messier, more complicated and a whole lot more interesting." Topics : Philippines human species archeology HomoFloriensis Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom Thu, April 11, 2019 15:33 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87326dd4e 2 SE Asia #Brunei,#Sharia,UK,Jeremy-Hunt,cancellation,Brunei,Hotel,stoning,death-penalty,gay,adultery Free British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt cancelled a fundraising event at the Brunei-owned luxury Dorchester Hotel in London, sources said Wednesday, after the sultanate adopted the death penalty for gay sex. Hunt called off the fundraiser for the governing Conservative Party after the southeast Asian country introduced the measure among several harsh new sharia laws, a government source said. The event, at which Hunt was due to speak, had been set to take place on April 2. The Times newspaper reported that the fundraiser is understood to have been rearranged for another venue in the coming weeks. "Its true," a government source said when asked to confirm The Times' story. A Conservative source said: "We've made clear to Brunei through every available channel that allowing the stoning of gay people is totally against modern values. "At a time when we are seeking answers it just wouldn't have been right to be seen to condone a business as usual approach." The body which represents rank-and-file police officers in England and Wales said Wednesday it was moving its annual bravery awards away from the hotel. The Police Federation's chairman John Apter said: "The PFEW and policing as a whole would not allow us to be associated with such a regime. "Doing nothing was not an option. An alternative venue has been identified and I will make sure the Bravery Awards are as special as they have always been. This is the right decision." Hundreds of anti-discrimination demonstrators massed outside the hotel on Saturday. Several hundred people gathered, many armed with rainbow flags, placards and banners calling for homophobia to be stamped out. A tough penal code in the tiny country on tropical Borneo island -- ruled by the all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah -- came fully into force last Wednesday after several years of delay. It has sparked a storm of global criticism from politicians, celebrities and rights groups, with actor George Clooney and pop star Elton John calling for Brunei-owned hotels to be boycotted. Britain's government has described the new laws, which include stoning to death for gay sex and adultery, and the amputation of hands and feet for thieves, as "a backward step". The Dorchester Collection group has said in a statement: "We understand people's anger and frustration but this is a political and religious issue that we don't believe should be played out in our hotels." Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Ljubljana, Slovenia Thu, April 11, 2019 09:05 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87324e591 2 News Slovenia,Ljubljana,capsule-hotel,Hotel,tourism,travel Free Tourists who visit Ljubljana can now stay in the Slovenian capital's first sleeping capsules after the city's Central Hotel put up 10 capsules in a former telephone switchboard room. "This is a new story in Slovenia," said Matej Rigelnik, chief executive officer of the hotel. Slovenia, the native country of US First Lady Melania Trump, has seen a surge in tourism since it joined the European Union in 2004 and the eurozone in 2007. Read also: Why traveling to Slovenia is a rewarding discovery The Alpine state's capital has a picturesque medieval center that stretches along the Ljubljanica river and a castle on a hill above the center. Last year the number overnight stays by foreign tourists in Slovenia jumped by 15.4 percent, with most of them coming from Germany, Italy, Austria, Netherlands and Croatia Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mary Schlangenstein (Bloomberg) Thu, April 11, 2019 17:00 979 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8732738ea 2 News JetBlue,Airbus,travel,business-travelers,#travel Free JetBlue Airways Corp. said it will use long-range Airbus SE jets with a modified version of its premium cabin as it prepares to join the hyper-competitive market for business travelers flying between the U.S. and Europe. JetBlue will fly starting in 2021 from its hubs at New Yorks John F. Kennedy and Boston Logan to an unspecified airport in London using the single-aisle Airbus A321LR, the carrier told employees at a rally Wednesday in New York. The announcement capped months of vows from Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes that JetBlue could bring new travelers to the market by undercutting obscene business-class fares and offering its posh Mint service. The trans-Atlantic jump is a major gamble for JetBlue, which carved out a domestic business starting in 2000 by offering plush leather seats and innovative seat-back video screens at discount fares. The carrier will immediately face twin competitive threats from entrenched global airline alliances and struggling low-cost operators, while also needing to secure space at crowded airports. This is one of the biggest step-changes in growing an airline, going international, said Samuel Engel, head of the aviation group at consultant ICF. And the Atlantic is not just any international market. The trans-Atlantic is a graveyard for airlines. JetBlue is better positioned to succeed than almost any other airline that has grown into it. Long planned JetBlue has been deliberating trans-Atlantic flights since at least 2016, when it ordered A321 planes with the right to convert some of the aircraft to a version with extra fuel tanks for longer routes. It will switch 13 existing orders to the A321LR, which can fly 4,000 nautical miles -- sufficient to hop from the northeast U.S. to Western Europe -- and can seat 206 passengers. Thats similar to a Boeing Co. 757-200. London is the largest metro area JetBlue doesnt yet serve from both Boston and New York, and we could not be more thrilled to be changing that in the years ahead, said Joanna Geraghty, president and chief operating officer. The fares being charged today by airlines on these routes, specifically on the premium end, are enough to make you blush. Switching to the A321LR does not affect JetBlues current orders for 85 A321s, its external financial commitments or capital-spending plans, the airline said. JetBlue also retains the right to shift more A321s to the long-range option. The carrier has created an internal team to begin securing U.S. regulatory approval for extended flights over water. Rising competition JetBlues entry would add to the rise of narrow-body planes plying the Atlantic. Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA already was operating flights with the Boeing 737 Max before that plane was grounded following two crashes of the model within five months. The airline has had to scrap some flights and switch others to bigger aircraft, increasing its costs. Discount carrier Wow Air Hf, which used single-aisle planes to connect European cities to the U.S. with a stop in Iceland, shut down last month after failing to secure rescue funding. The tougher challenge for JetBlue is likely to come from the biggest carriers that for years have dominated traffic across the North Atlantic. American Airlines Group Inc. and IAGs British Airways form one alliance, while Delta Air Lines Inc. and Air France-KLM are joined in another and a third includes United Continental Holdings Inc. and Deutsche Lufthansa AG. The incumbents hold the majority of slots, or rights to take off and land. Theres a difference between going in as a little water skimmer taking off some of the leisure traffic at the bottom, Engel said. A Wow in that market is annoying but not an existential threat. A JetBlue serving it and going after core business traffic is a real threat to the established players and they are going to fight hard. Read also: Delete your Instagram pictures to win a year of free flights Regulators role JetBlue has been calling on regulators in the U.S., U.K. and European Union to force airlines that are members of global alliances to give up some valuable flight slots at congested airports like Kennedy and Londons Heathrow airport. The big airlines will tell you that competition has never been more robust, but the smaller airlines have never found it harder to get access, Geraghty said. The competition is also tough at less trafficked hubs. Delta last week announced it will begin flights to Boston and New York from Londons Gatwick airport with trans-Atlantic partner Virgin Atlantic starting in 2020. Delta is a major competitor to JetBlue in both of those northeastern U.S. cities. Gatwick is less congested than Heathrow when it comes to flights, said Bob Mann, president of aviation consultancy R.W. Mann & Co. But the facility is just as crowded. Its not just slots, but ticket counter access, baggage positions and gates. And you want to get flights at commercially attractive times. Hayes, who has been JetBlue CEO four years, previously worked for British Airways, as did Chief Financial Officer Stephen Priest. In addition to its U.S. routes, JetBlue has flights to nearly two dozen countries in the Caribbean, Mexico and the northern part of South America. 8 hours ago Is FedEx A Buy Before Earnings? There Are Reasons To Be Wary Of FedEx FQ2 Results If you are thinking FedEx (NYSE: FDX) is going to have a strong quarter you are probably right. The company is forecasting a 10% increase in holiday deliveries that, when coupled with all the price increases, should deliver revenue growth in the mid-teens at least if not up into the 20% range. Read Article Assange arrested after asylum lifted LONDON: Julian Assange was arrested by London police today (Apr 11) after Ecuador withdrew diplomatic asylum from the Australian who had been linked to leaks of US government secrets. Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service at the Embassy of Ecuador, police said. By AFP Thursday 11 April 2019, 05:36PM Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is arrested and carried out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London (Apr 11). Police said they arrested Assange after being invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean governments withdrawal of asylum. London police said Assange was arrested moments after Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said on Twitter that the country had withdrawn his diplomatic asylum. Mr Assange has been in the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012 when he sought to escape questioning in a Swedish sexual-assault case. While those charges were dropped in 2017, Mr Assange has remained in the embassy as he has continued to avoid American prosecutors. Mr Assanges exit from the embassy ends a nearly seven-year standoff between the transparency advocate and British authorities. While he will initially face punishment for jumping bail in the UK, Mr Assange faces the possibility of a looming extradition request to the US. WikiLeaks and Assange became famous in 2010 when the organisation published government secrets leaked by US Army soldier Chelsea Manning highlighting US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recently, the website put itself at the centre of the 2016 American presidential race by publishing hacked emails from Hillary Clintons campaign. Phuket airport chief dismisses death penalty for beach selfie reports PHUKET: Thanee Chuangchoo, General Manager of Phuket International Airport, today (Apr 11) dismissed reports circulating in the international media that taking selfies on Mai Khao Beach near the runway will incur the death penalty. tourismtransport By The Phuket News Thursday 11 April 2019, 06:09PM Local residents meet with officials last Friday (Apr 5) about the expansion of the safety zone at the end of the runway on Mai Khao Beach. Photo: Supplied Local residents meet with officials last Friday (Apr 5) about the expansion of the safety zone at the end of the runway on Mai Khao Beach. Photo: Supplied Tourists at Mai Khao beach greet the plane about to land on Phuket International Airports Runway 09. Photo FP/popumon via Bangkok Post Mr Thanee called the spurious reports incomplete, noting that they focused on the most serious of punishments available under the law reserved for those who endanger lives. Taking selfies or pictures of aircraft while standing on Mai Khao Beach will not incur the death penalty, Mr Thanee said. But if people take any action which is harmful or disturbs the piloting of any aircraft, such as distracting pilots by pointing laser pens at them or flying drones in the area, such behaviour will see the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) invoke the law, he added. In my opinion taking a selfie is okay, Mr Thanee said, but noted that he is not directly involved in the particulars of expanding the safety zone at the end of the runway. Mr Thanee explained that the reports of death penalty were considered so ridiculous that he was initially asked to not even respond to them. He also pointed out that attempts to have the beach area at the end of the runway sealed off in years past were headed off by provincial officials who said they wanted to keep the area open to the public as it was a very popular tourist attraction. The news of expanding the safety zone broke on Mar 6, when Vijit Keawsaitiam, AoT Executive Vice President and Deputy General Manager of Phuket International Airport (Operations and Maintenance Group), announced that the safety zone around the airport will be expanded. Mr Vijit pointed out that expansion of the safety zone was in order to meet the requirements of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which provides monitoring and evaluation of operations according to various regulatory frameworks. (See story here.) Mr Thanee today said that he was not involved in the actual expansion of the prohibited area. Instead, he passed that on to the CAAT and the national park officers responsible for Sirinath National Park, within which the beach area is located. I have been informed that they will install a fence in the area, but I do not know any more details than that, he said. The CAAT has yet to respond to questions from The Phuket News about details of the plan to expand the safety zone. Sirinath National Park Chief Vitoon Dechpramualpol did respond, but only said, At this stage we are still drawing up the plans, which have yet to be finalised. Local residents met with officials last Friday (Apr 5) about the expansion of the safety zone at the end of the runway on Mai Khao Beach, he added. Phuket van driver charged after destroying street light in wipeout PHUKET: A 28-year-old passenger van driver has been charged with reckless driving after his van destroyed a street light that was mounted in the central reservation on Wichit Songkram Rd in Kathu this morning (Apr 11). tourismtransportaccidentspolice By Tanyaluk Sakoot Thursday 11 April 2019, 11:51AM The van wiped out a street light that was mounted on the central reservation on Wichit Songkram Rd in Kathu this morning (Apr 11). Photo: Kathu Police The driver was rushing to pick up passengers in Patong, police told The Phuket News. Capt Nipon Temsang of the Kathu Police was notified of the accident, in front of Phuket Villa Kathu, at 7am. I arrived to see the street light pole across the road and dirt all around the area, Capt Nipon said. There were no passengers in the van, just the driver Mr Akkarachai, and he was not injured, he added. Capt Nipon explained that he could not remember Mr Akkarachais family name as he was not at the police station at the time The Phuket News called. I tested Mr Akkarachai at the scene for alcohol. He was not drunk. The cause of accident was that he lost control of the van while speeding. Plus the curves along this road are dangerous, he said. Mr Akkarachai has been charged with reckless driving causing damage to government property. He will be called on to pay for the damaged pole, Capt Niponi confirmed. Capt Nipon also urged drivers to drive safely, especially during the Seven Days of Danger road-safety campaign for the Songkran Thai New Year holidays, which began at midnight last night. Please be careful while driving, especially during the Songkran Seven Days, it is a dangerous time for drivers, Capt Nipon said. Phuket Zoo baby elephant benched from tourist shows over health issues PHUKET: Phuket Zoo is been ordered to not use the baby elephant Dodo to perform work, namely performing tricks for tourists, until his health has recovered. tourismanimals By Tanyaluk Sakoot Thursday 11 April 2019, 10:26AM The elephant shelter and the food and water provided are all good to keep Ping Pong healthy, said DLD Chief Manas Thepparuk. Photo: Phuket Livestock Office The elephant shelter and the food and water provided are all good to keep Ping Pong healthy, said DLD Chief Manas Thepparuk. Photo: Phuket Livestock Office The 2-year-old baby elephant, whose actual name is Ping Pong is not allowed to be used to entertain tourists until his health recovers. Photo: DLD Phuket The 2-year-old baby elephant, whose actual name is Ping Pong is not allowed to be used to entertain tourists until his health recovers. Photo: DLD Phuket The 2-year-old baby elephant, whose actual name is Ping Pong is not allowed to be used to entertain tourists until his health recovers. Photo: DLD Phuket The order came as officers from the Phuket Provincial Office of the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) inspected the baby elephants health on Tuesday evening (April 10). The inspection follows an online campaign by animal welfare group Moving Animals to have the elephant moved to an ethical sanctuary gaining international momentum. (See story here.) DLD Chief Manas Thepparuk explained to The Phuket News that Dodo is a 2-year-old male elephant. His name actually is Ping Pong, according to his registration document, Mr Manas said. Our officers found that Ping Pong is underweight, so we have to make sure he is not suffering from an infection or a digestive problem, Mr Manas noted. His weight loss might be a consequence of diarrhea. Plus he has new teeth coming up. This might make him want to eat less than normal, he added. However, the elephant shelter where he is kept and the food and water provided are all good to keep him healthy, Mr Manas said. Phuket Zoo has been ordered to not use Ping Pong to perform in tourist shows until he returns to full health, Mr Manas confirmed. I informed Phuket Zoo that we want him to fully recover first, then he can return to work, he said. Asked how long that will be, Mr Manas replied, That depends on how quickly he recovers. We will go to check his health again next month. Mr Manas warned Phuket Zoo to comply with the order. If Phuket Zoo fails to comply, they will be charged for breaching the Cruelty Prevention and Welfare of Animal Act, under which they shall be liable to a fine not exceeding for B40,000, Manas said. To see the Cruelty Prevention and Welfare of Animal Act, B.E. 2557 (2014) as posted on the DLD website, click here. Tourist exploiters targeted in random police inspections PHUKET: Phuket Tourist Police on Wednesday (Apr 10) conducted an operation in which various companies that cater predominantly to Chinese tourists were randomly inspected to check that they were operating fairly and within the law. Chinesetourismcrime By Eakkapop Thongtub Thursday 11 April 2019, 03:13PM Artipong Sangsil (left) and Col Eakkrit Virayapap (centre) lead officials in the inspection of Phuket tourism companies on Wednesday (Apr 10). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub Col Eakkrit Virayapap of the Phuket Tourist Police led a team of 30 officers along with Artipong Sangsil, Registrar at the Bureau of Tourism Business and Guide Registration (Southern Region 2), to conduct inspections within Wichit and Muang district following a large number of complaints made to the Department of Tourism about the exploitation of Chinese tourists by companies in those areas. Mr Artipong said, There are approximately 20,000 companies in Phuket that target tourists. Today (Apr 10) we inspected only those that target Chinese tourists and at future dates, we will inspect those that cater to tourists of other nationalities as well. We are checking that businesses and tour operators are not exploiting tourists through unfair pricing and poor standards, he explained. Mr Artipong highlighted that the inspections were focussed on zero baht tours in which tourists, particularly Chinese, are sold packaged tours at very low prices and are then taken to many selected stores where they are sold overpriced goods. The Department Of Tourism is keeping a close eye on tourism companies and will protect tourists from exploitation as well as making sure that standards are high, Mr Artipong said. This will ensure that tourists return to Phuket. Mr Artipong confirmed that during the inspections on Wednesday no malpractice was found. Director of nutrition services resigns after complaints about school meals The Watertown School Board has accepted the resignation of the food service director. The district has received complaints regarding the food program. MONTREAL - It was a sunny Wednesday in March, and Neil Bruce was making his case forwhy SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. deserved a negotiated settlement over corruption charges tied to alleged dealings in Libya. After spending six weeks in the eye of a political storm over the actions of top government officials who had pushed to head off a criminal prosecution in the case, the CEO of Canadas most renowned engineering and construction firm went on a press offensive. Flanked by a public relations team in a downtown Toronto boardroom, Bruce shared some internal data on the use of deferred prosecution agreements (DPA) by SNC-Lavalins rivals to illustrate the competitive disadvantage his firm faces. Weve calculated that about 75 per cent of these U.S. and European competitors have done DPAs in their own host country and are free to work in Canada, Bruce told The Canadian Press on March 20. When pressed for details on this claim made to at least one other news outlet SNC-Lavalin told The Canadian Press it does not have a comprehensive list of competitors who have entered into DPAs. The firm did not share how it arrived at the number. The Canadian Press analyzed figures on corporate settlements from a pair of databases and found that only a handful of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.s rivals or their subsidiaries have received deferred prosecution agreements. In the U.S. and United Kingdom, just one of SNC-Lavalins 16 main competitors listed in its 2018 annual information form is named as a DPA recipient, according to the databases that go as far back as 1992. Of 216 DPAs and non-prosecution agreements which are similar, but more lenient in the U.S. since 2014, only eight were granted to construction or design firms, and only three of those companies qualified as global players, according to figures in annual reports by law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. The U.K. has granted only four DPAs since legislation was passed in 2013, records from Fieldfisher law firm show. Most of the activity in DPAs is extremely recent, said Jennifer Quaid, a criminal law professor at the University of Ottawa. There isnt necessarily a long tradition of holding companies criminally liable in many European jurisdictions. When asked about the discrepancy in the numbers, SNC-Lavalin stood by its figures. SNC-Lavalin did internal research on the topic and calculated that about 75 per cent of its rivals have concluded DPAs in their host countries, spokesman Nicolas Ryan said in an email. While none of SNC-Lavalins 16 competitors appear to have received DPAs in the U.S. or U.K. in the past five years, a few of their subsidiaries have, and several rivals accepted deals prior to 2014. In 2012, Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp. agreed to pay US$54.6 million in a DPA linked to its participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Montreal-based engineering firm WSP Global Inc. bought Louis Berger in 2018 three years after that company paid US$17.1 million to resolve charges it bribed officials in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kuwait. Tishman Construction Corp. purchased by Aecom in 2010 accepted in 2015 a US$20.2-million DPA tied to an overbilling scheme dating back to 1999. And SNC-Lavalins own WS Atkins, which it bought in 2017, acquired a subsidiary seven years earlier that reached a US$3.4-million DPA following allegations of bribing Qatari officials in 2009. In 2008, British construction company Balfour Beatty admitted to payment irregularities and paid a 2.25-million-pound penalty following a bribery investigation by the U.K.s Serious Fraud Office, avoiding charges in the process. Instead it got a plea bargain, which unlike a DPA involves a legal admission of guilt along with the bidding bans and steeper penalties that can come with it. The goal of a DPA, also known as a remediation agreement, is to encourage voluntary disclosure of criminal misconduct that might otherwise fly under regulators radar. By entering into a DPA, a company avoids prosecution while taking responsibility for breaches such as fraud or bribery of foreign officials and agreeing to conditions like overhauling its board and senior management, adopting a compliance program and accepting third-party oversight. DPAs also aim to slash costs and time for investigators in what can be lengthy, exhaustive criminal probes by cash-strapped government bureaus. The big thing that corporations are worried about is stigma. They dont like the stigma of being considered a corporate criminal, because that affects their sales and their public reputation, said Russell Mokhiber, a corporate crime journalist and author. The difference between who gets a negotiated settlement and who doesnt often comes down to size, says Susan Hawley, policy director at London-based non-profit Corruption Watch. Large companies tend to get away with DPAs and the smaller companies get prosecuted criminally, she said. She points to Rolls-Royce PLC, with which U.K. prosecutors pursued an agreement for corrupt conduct spanning three decades, as the states Serious Fraud Office director put it in February. The settlement which emerged only after Rolls-Royce had been found out, Hawley said, not after self-reporting drew renewed scrutiny of the practice. Because the large corporations have the power, they have the power to demand and secure these agreements, said Mokhiber. You lose so many jobs in the economy, shareholders get hurt, innocent employees are punished, and so forth. Companies in this story: (TSX:SNC, TSX:WSP) Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version stated that Tishman Construction Corp. was owned by Aecon. MONTREAL - MTY Food Group Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire Papa Murphys Holdings Inc. in a deal it valued at roughly $253.2 million, including debt. Under the transaction, Montreal-based MTY will pay $8.63 in cash for each share of Papa Murphys, which is above Wednesdays closing price of $6.54. Papa Murphys sells fresh, hand-crafted pizzas ready for customers to bake at home, as well as salads, side dishes and desserts. As of the end of 2018, it had 1,331 franchised and 106 corporate-owned stores in 37 U.S. states, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. MTY is a franchisor and operator of a broad range of restaurants. Its banners include shopping mall food court staples such as Thai Express, Vanellis and Manchu Wok, as well as full-service restaurants such as Baton Rouge, Pizza Delight and Scores. They rape us, we kill them. That was the motto adopted by the real-life group of Yazidi women in Iraq who decided to hunt down their captors and who inspired French director Eva Husson to dramatize them in her film Girls of the Sun, opening Friday in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. It follows a band of female Peshmerga fighters in northwestern Iraqi Kurdistan who set out to avenge the killings and kidnappings of their husbands and children by members of Daesh (also known as ISIS) who also held the women captive, some as sex slaves. Girls of the Sun had its world premiere at the 2018 Cannes festival. I spoke to Husson when she brought the movie at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival for its North American premiere. What brought you to this story? I came across news articles about Kurdish women fighters, and digging around, I realized this story had to be told and I could play a part in that. I sent an email to my producer who was crazy enough to answer right away at 2 a.m. with Lets do it. Is it a true story? You know, its a complex matter. The original battalion that got my attention when I investigated them, they never fought. That battalion specifically. But there are a lot of Kurdish women fighters and a lot of female battalions. So, I didnt feel it was right to pretend that maybe it was based on that battalion and say it just happened. The movies more of an aggregation of several battalions and several women that I met along the way. So in a weird way, everything is true, just not in that specific order. How did you research the film? I interviewed all of the ex-captives. I went to meet them. I interviewed a lot of fighters, I interviewed a lot of war reporters, and I read a lot about the culture, about fights, about the political ideals. I like research; I come from a very classical academic background and thats one of my favourite parts of moviemaking. How did you choose your lead, Golshifteh Farahani? Shes a unicorn. When I started writing the movie, I knew there would be only one actress that could have the talent, the strength and the financial power to make the movie happen. I could have done the movie with somebody else except that it would not have been the same movie at all, it would have been a much smaller movie. Golshifteh is a star in the Middle East. Shes a powerful actress and shes quite well known in France I reached out to her and explained the project to her. I hadnt finished the script, but I wanted to make sure she was interested. And before the end of the sentence, she was like, Ive been waiting for someone to bring that story to me. And I was like Whaaat? What was important to you in how you told this story? I think the portrayal of violence was something that I found an important facet in a lot of movies. When its directed toward women, theyre mostly portrayed as just victims. And I thought that it would be important to go a different route. To show violence, the way its usually shown for men (in male-directed movies), where its part of a story and it moves it forward. For example, rape scenes in a lot of male-directed movies drive me nuts. I sense that most of the time we just spend way too much time on something that we have the information on, and we dont need to spend more time on it. But I think they start enjoying the process. And I know in the theatre that someone is enjoying it, and that makes me extremely uncomfortable. So most of that kind of violence is actually off camera in the movie. Rape has nothing to do with sex. Rape has to do with power. You deny another human being her identity, and thats what its about. Thats what Im showing. The film is a stark reminder of how different womens lives are in different places Exactly, and thats another thing that I want Western women to be reminded of: Throughout history, what were living is an aberration, you know? When I met these women and I walked in streets that did not belong to women, when I felt I was in danger, believe me, it just hit me really hard. And I really understood that a lot of us live in a bubble, a sheltered vision of the world. And we dont realize that most of our sisters dont have that chance, and I think we have a duty to step up to the plate and try to raise awareness and at least do that. At least understand how privileged we are. Read more about: Girls of the Sun Starring Golshifteh Farahani and Emmanuelle Bercot. Written and directed by Eva Husson. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 115 minutes. 14A Girls of the Sun presents the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of Kurdish women soldiers, and those of filmmaker Eva Husson. The French writer/director brought her first film Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) to TIFFs Platform program in 2015, where it shocked and impressed viewers with its frank depiction of teenage life. This new feature, her second, rattles the senses in a different manner. Based on a true story, Girls of the Sun stars Irans Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson) and Frances Emmanuelle Bercot (My King) in a drama about an all-female battalion seeking to retake a Kurdish town once held by militants for Daesh, also known as ISIS. Farahani is Bahar, a woman seeking justice (and also revenge) by fighting the men who enslaved her sexually and took away her son. Bercot is eyepatch-wearing journalist Mathilde, loosely based on Marie Colvin, the real-life war reporter killed in action in 2012. (Colvin is better remembered in last years A Private War.) When first met, Mathilde is in a hotel room, grieving her husband, also a journalist, who was recently killed in Libya. She and Bahar have much in common, and that includes fighting the patriarchy of supposed allies who cant believe or countenance the sight of women fighting: What are you doing in this hell? someone asks. This film, which premiered in competition at Cannes 2018, certainly does believe. It doesnt stint on war-movie tropes and cliche-filled speeches, sometimes to its detriment. It fares better in recognizing the humanity and determination of the female soldiers. CFB TRENTONIt survived 14 combat missions over Nazi Germany, but the RCAF feared it wouldnt survive yet another winter in the New Brunswick woods. So last spring 20 volunteers from CFB Trenton arrived in the woods just outside Edmundston, N.B., armed with all the tools required to dismantle the big Lancaster bomber KB882, load it on eight flatbed transports and haul it off to a more comfortable life in Trentons National Air Force Museum. Now those volunteers are working daily in the museums back room putting KB882 back together and returning it to its original splendour. Itll be unveiled at ceremonies in 2024 saluting the100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The maintenance technicians were rather surprised by KB882s structural health when they got the bomber to Trenton. For that, they can thank Troy Kirby. Kirby is not an Air Force veteran, nor an airframe expert. Hes merely an airplane fan, like his grandmother. Kirby was still eight years away from being born when this Lancaster bomber rolled to its final stop in 1964 on a grassy strip just outside Edmundston. It was retiring to be a war memorial after 19 years of tough flying conditions in Canadas High Arctic, where it flew patterns making maps of the vast region to update the navigational maps Sir John Franklin and other explorers relied on to first venture into the Arctic Region. The .50-calibre machine guns protruding from its nose and from a glass bumble on its tail had been replaced by high-resolution cameras to record the North and spy on Soviet research camps and submarines surfacing though thick ice to spy on us. Kirby grew up listening to his grandmothers stories about being a plane spotter in Britain during the Second World War. That spurred his love of historic war birds and his large collection of Second World War aircraft paraphernalia. He kept his collection on the second floor of the Spitfire Arms Alehouse he operated in Windsor, Nova Scotia. He has since sold the pub. When he learned about the Lancaster bomber sitting unprotected through 54 New Brunswick winters Kirby organized volunteer maintenance parties that put in hundreds of hours caring for the bomber and started a campaign to find it an indoor shelter. He knew only 17 of the 7,377 Lancaster Bombers built during the Second World War still survive as complete airframes. Victory Aircraft built 430 of those Lancasters, including KB882, at its plant in Malton. Nobody was happier than Kirby to see the RCAF step up and bring KB822 under its protective wing, even though it meant losing the airplane to Ontario. When the Lanc is ready to show its new face itll join 35 other retired Canadian military aircraft on show at the museum, including the first airplane bought by the military in 1914. The Lanc will then share the spot light with another war bird that also tried to avoid being in the spot light during its war days. But the search lights did find the big Halifax Bomber NA337 as it dropped supplies to the Norwegian underground when Norway was occupied by Nazis troops. Enemy flak hit its right wing fuel tanks and started fires in its two starboard engines. The British crew crash landed their plane in a fjord and all survived the crash, but five of the six crew died of hypothermia in the cold water. Tail gunner Thomas Weightman went back into the sinking wreck to release a rubber dingy that was to release on impact. He made it to shore, but was caught by Germany soldiers and interned as a PoW. On the night of the crash on April, 23, 1945 two weeks before the end of the Second World War 16-year-old Tore Marsoe watched the Halifax fly over his house and plunge into the fjord. Forty six years later in 1991 he and a friend went searching for the bomber and found it under 650 feet of water. Norway gave Canada permission to retrieve the bomber and in 1995, 50 years after the crash, it was raised to the surface. Standing on the beach to watch the bomber break the surface of the water was tail gunner 73-year-old Thomas Weightman. Later that day Wightmans coffee thermos, still containing coffee, was found in the tail gunners turret. It took nearly 10 years and 335,000 hours of work by 100 volunteers at Trenton to restore the Halifax bomber to showroom condition. PB Pat Brennan was not sponsored for this trip. was not sponsored for this trip. Read more about: OTTAWACanadian intelligence agencies are more and more preoccupied by the threat of right-wing extremism and white supremacist movements in Canada, the countrys spy chief said Wednesday. David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said the agency remains most concerned about the threat of violence from religious extremists, particularly those who invoke a perverted version of Islam. (But) we are more and more preoccupied by the number of ultra right-wing extremists, people who are invoking a number of different philosophies, approaches, Vigneault told the Senates National Security Committee Wednesday, listing white nationalism, ethnonationalism and white supremacist movements in particular. This represents a significant change for the intelligence service, which just three years ago abandoned an ongoing investigation into far-right extremism in Canada. That rolling investigation was reopened a year later, after Alexandre Bissonnette murdered six worshippers at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec in 2017. Bissonnette told a detective that he was concerned about immigration and terrorists hurting his family, and evidence at his trial showed he followed several far-right figures online. The shootings happened just a couple of blocks away from where Vigneault was born. The event hit home, Vigneault said. Barbara Perry, a researcher at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, recently estimated there were 300 far-right, white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups active in Canada. These groups are notoriously short-lived, researchers say. They form, fight within themselves, break up and reform as new groups on a regular basis. But with far-right groups gaining prominence within mainstream political debates in the United States and Europe, its unlikely Canada is immune. Vigneault cited last years van attack in Toronto as an example of the far right adopting terrorist methods to wreak havoc. The attack in Toronto by someone invoking a philosophy of involuntary celibate (an online subculture that resents women for not having sex with them), but what was striking was the philosophy was one thing, the person who wanted to cause harm and fear in the population, but he used a technique that had been perfected by terrorists, Vigneault said. OTTAWACanadians have wildly diverging views on banning handguns and assault-style firearms, says a newly released summary of federal consultations. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Crime Reduction Minister Bill Blair to study the possibility of such a ban shortly after a shooting spree in Toronto last July. The federal report released Thursday says opinions expressed during in-person discussions and through written submissions both opposed and supported outlawing handguns and assault-style firearms. In contrast, most people who responded to a questionnaire were against a ban. Many participants felt strongly that a ban would target law-abiding owners, rather than illicit firearms, and would not reduce gang violence, the report says. As a result, many called for beefing up police and border services, as well as tougher penalties for firearms-trafficking and gun-related crime. A wide range of approaches and ideas were discussed, which suggests that a multifaceted approach is needed to address this issue rather than implementing a ban in isolation, the report says. There was consensus on the need to address the underlying social conditions that can lead to gun violence, such as poverty, lack of education and employment opportunities, poor mental-health supports and social isolation, the report adds. Participants also supported better collection and sharing of data on gun crime, especially on sources of illicit firearms and the types of offences being committed. In addition, many people active in the firearms community said they wanted to work with the federal government to come up with solutions. New Zealand recently banned military-style semi-automatic weapons after 50 Muslims were brutally gunned down in Christchurch. Blair said Thursday there are opportunities to take measures that will make Canada safer, though he declined to provide details or speculate on timing. Blair said he has been looking at the data, the experience in other jurisdictions, Canadas regulatory environment and how firearms get into the wrong hands. And as a result of that work, I believe that there are some things that we can do to create a safe environment, reduce gun violence in our communities and make it far more difficult for people who would commit crimes. Participants at a series of eight in-person roundtables in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Moncton, N.B., last October were divided in their views on a ban, the summary says. There was also a range of opinion among 36 written submissions. Opposition to a ban came from shooting clubs, retailers, academics, wildlife associations, a territorial government, an association representing rural municipalities and a group of LGBTQ firearms owners. You are reacting to a crime wave, no question, but not a firearms problem, said one submission. Support for a ban came from some health associations, victims organizations, women-focused groups, a provincial ministry and an organization that deals with municipal affairs. As these firearms have no legitimate use in hunting, current owners may only legally use them for target shooting or collecting, said one such submission. This is not a compelling enough reason to justify the risk they pose to public safety. However, about four in every five of the almost 135,000 responses to an online questionnaire objected to doing more to limit access to handguns or assault-style weapons. A federal bill introduced in March last year, and currently before the Senate, has proposed expanding the scope of background checks on those who want to acquire guns, strengthening record-keeping requirements for sales and requiring purchasers to present valid firearms licences. But the government has long been eyeing additional measures. The government thinking evolved further after a July 2018 shooting in Toronto that killed two people, injured 13, led to the gunmans death and left a neighbourhood deeply shaken. Two days later, Toronto city council passed a motion calling on the federal government to outlaw the sale of handguns in the city. Read more about: A brief from a far-right anti-immigrant group was removed from the Quebec legislatures website Thursday following an outcry from people who monitor extremist movements. MarieChantal Chasse, chairwoman of the legislatures committee on citizen relations, had filed the document from the Federation des quebecois de souche the Federation of old-stock Quebecers Tuesday as part of consultations on a government immigration bill. Chasse, a member of the Coalition Avenir Quebec government, said she had no choice under legislature rules, a position backed up by Premier Francois Legault and an opposition member. Speaking to reporters in the morning before the brief had been taken down, Legault said everyone has the right to comment on legislation, though their views dont necessarily need to be publicized. Everybody has the liberty to table a document, he said, adding: We have to be careful. I think that all parties, including our party, have to make sure we dont put oil on the fire. The federation, which Legault labelled extreme, was founded by Maxime Fiset, a former neo-Nazi who abandoned the movement and now works for a Montreal centre fighting radicalization. Read more: Immigrants, visible minorities say Quebec government targeting them with bills Quebecs plan to reduce immigration levels wont help newcomers, study shows Quebec ordered to process 18,000 immigration applications Its brief commented on the governments Bill 9, which would grant the government the authority to be more selective over who receives permanent residency in Quebec and how many people are admitted. The group began by congratulating the Legault government for tackling immigration reform. It called for a system favouring immigrants showing the strongest affinities with Quebecers, in particular people from the francophone regions of Europe or the French-Canadian diaspora. It said the identity of the Quebec nation depends on old-stock Quebecers remaining very much in the majority on the territory of Quebec. The Quebec solidaire opposition party said several passages of the brief ran counter to legislature rules against violent or hurtful language. Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of Quebec solidaire said the committee had no choice but to remove the eight-page document, especially in the context of the heated debate over Quebecs controversial secularism bill. Freedom of expression, and especially the ability to contribute to a legislature committee, is not an unlimited right, he told The Canadian Press. There are limits, and today we placed a limit in saying that a brief that calls for ethnic purity is not acceptable. He said the most offensive passage was the one speaking of the right of the Quebec nation to preserve its ethnic identity. It is a straight appeal for racial purity, Nadeau-Dubois said. Thats beyond the bounds of a respectful debate. He added that he hopes members of the legislature will undertake a reflection to ensure their committees are never again allowed to serve as platforms for such groups. A statement from the national assembly explained that briefs received from those not invited to testify during public hearings are typically made public, either at the end of hearings or during detailed study of a bill. This submission does not mean that the chair or members of the committee endorse the contents of these briefs, the statement read. Briefs that do not respect legislature rules can be rejected. These are exceptional situations that are dealt with on a case-by-case basis by the chair of the committee and its members, the statement said. Read more about: If all goes well, a small endangered shorebird with bright orange legs will soon arrive on Sauble Beach and start to show off. By the end of April, the male piping plover should be flying back and forth in a figure eight, alerting females with loud peep-peeps that the stud they no doubt have been waiting for has arrived. Hell tussle with competitors to claim territory, scrape out a nest by shovelling sand with his feet and advertise his work with more loud calls. If a female tries out the nest, he will stand above her and spread his wings and tail like a fan, as if gallantly sheltering her from the sun. To seal the deal hell puff out his white chest, stretch his black neckband as wide as he can and perform a lightning-fast goosestep like a hyper-cranked windup toy. Mating isnt assured, of course. But he might be consoled if he knew his efforts unfailingly seduce a different species. If everyone had a chance to see the courtship display theyd all be plover lovers, says Lynne Richardson, a member of a Sauble Beach conservation committee that unofficially calls itself the Plover Lovers. So charmed are these lovers they give the banded birds names: Miss Sunshine has been gamely returning since 2015 despite heartbreaks with chicks and mates killed by predators; Flagboy, last seen in 2017, was an attentive dad and object of much female attention even though at age 4, he was old by plover standards. Read more: The plight of endangered species in a hostile Ontario beach town And yet, it seems beguiling charisma only goes so far. In late May, a trial is scheduled against the Town of South Bruce Peninsula, charged with two separate counts of damaging piping plover habitat with beach work. The birds and their habitat are protected by Ontarios 2008 Endangered Species Act, and if convicted, the town faces fines of up to $1 million for each count. The trial pits conservation efforts that saw piping plovers return to Ontarios Great Lakes for the first time in 30 years, against the towns management of Sauble Beach for sun worshippers who flock there each summer. Mayor Janice Jackson insists her town has protected the birds since 2007, when a pair made a single nest on the Lake Huron beach the first piping plover nest on Ontarios side of the Great Lakes since 1977. At the same time, Jackson makes clear she believes the fuss over plovers is much ado about nothing. We dont believe that the piping plovers are endangered at all, she says in an interview, adding shes counting on Premier Doug Fords government to see things her way. The new (environment) ministry is reviewing the endangered species list and were hoping that theyll remove the piping plovers. That would certainly resolve things going forward. To plover lovers and environmentalists, that kind of talk means the stakes could not be higher. The battle, they insist, is not solely about saving a species from extinction in the Great Lakes area. Its also about saving a habitat adored by both plovers and humans. The piping plovers habitat happens to be the beaches we all love, says Andrea Gress, a Bird Studies Canada official who co-ordinates Ontarios piping plover conservation efforts in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Protecting the beach for the plovers means we end up with a really healthy beach thats sustainable and will be with us for generations to come, Gress adds. The piping plovers are a really cool species in that sense because protecting them really protects something we all love. But three environmental groups Environmental Defence, Ontario Nature and the David Suzuki Foundation fear the Ford government is poised to do exactly the opposite. They say a government discussion paper that launched a review of the Endangered Species Act signals deregulation that will make it easier for industry and development proponents to proceed with activities that harm species at risk and their habitats. Sauble Beach has a long history of recreational use. It stretches 11 kilometres, four of which are owned by the town. Bruce County estimates tourists injected $300 million into the peninsula in 2018, and Jackson says most of that was due to Tobermory and Sauble Beach. Jackson, who was re-elected mayor in a landslide last October, says the town has always been willing to co-exist with the birds, but accuses environmentalists and the ministry of natural resources of pressing it to abandon the beach to the plovers. She puts the number of piping plovers in North America at millions. In fact, while the plover family of birds is made up of several species, some with healthy populations, the piping plover is estimated at only 4,000 pairs worldwide, according to the Great Lakes Piping Plover Conservation Team, led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and made up of two dozen government departments, universities and wildlife agencies on both sides of the border. Historically, piping plovers nested throughout the Great Lakes with an estimated population of up to 800 pairs. Numbers began declining after the Second World War, as Great Lake beaches disappeared under development and tourism. By the mid-1980s, the population had declined to no more than 14 pairs, all nesting in Michigan state. Conservation efforts there, including the rearing of abandoned eggs, were key to raising numbers to 67 pairs in 2018. They nested on the shores of all five Great Lakes, but only eight of those pairs nested on Ontarios side of the border, including a pair on Hanlans Point on the Toronto Islands the first successful nest on the islands since 1934. Plovers nest on natural beaches, where the sand-coloured birds and their chicks can hide from predators among dunes, scattered vegetation, driftwood and pebbles. Conservation volunteers place large protective cages over the nests with openings wide enough for adult plovers to come and go, but too small for predators like crows, gulls, cats, dogs and foxes. The first 50 metres from the nest used by plovers to feed and rear their chicks are roped off and off-limits to human activity, according to government documents that define protected habitat for the plovers under the Endangered Species Act. The next 450 metres of beach is considered moderately tolerant to alteration. Beachgoers can use this area as long as they dont damage the habitat. Beach grooming, grading and removal of vegetation are largely prohibited. Saubles first nest appeared in 2007 at the north end of the beach. The town promptly turned that area over to the ministry of natural resources, Jackson says. Beach maintenance stopped and thick willow bushes eventually took over that end, pushing plovers to nest in more open beach areas further south. Poor beach maintenance became an election issue in 2014. Jackson lives 50 metres from the beach and says its neglected state was a reason she ran for mayor after sitting as a town councillor since 2010. Her platform included a promise to clean it up and she won with 52 per cent of the vote. She began tilling and disking, which is what farmers do to fields with equipment that plows, tears out weeds, breaks up clods and mixes soil. The work resulted in Environmental Defence accusing the town of no longer protecting shorelines and ecosystems. In 2015, the group revoked Saubles blue flag designation. Jackson says the ministry of natural resources was fine with the town raking the beach until the summer of 2017, when ministry officials complained about work the town had done in April, days before the birds arrived. She says the April work included tilling and disking. Jackson insists no natural dunes were flattened, including the big ones at the back of the beach. But fencing that had captured sand over the years and created dunes were removed. The sand from these dunes was then spread across the beach. From the years of feedback Ive received, the majority of people dont want more dunes, they want more beach! Jackson wrote in a Facebook post that month. A year later, in late March 2018, the ministry issued a stop-work order against the town after a complaint from Ontario Nature. The order expired at the end of the year. In June and July that year, the ministry laid two charges for damage caused to piping plover habitat. The first was for work done in April 2017; the second for work between Aug. 23 and Sept. 7 the same year, when heavy equipment was used to rip out willow bushes that had taken over a kilometre-long stretch at the north end of the beach, Jackson says. Beach raking and vegetation removal, prior to or during the breeding season, damages and destroys the birds protected habitat, said Gary Wheeler, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, in an email response to questions about the charges. (The Ford government transferred responsibility for the Endangered Species Act from the natural resources ministry to the environment ministry.) Jackson acknowledges the work was done to safely accommodate more beachgoers, but insists it also helped the plovers. We dont believe that we have damaged or destroyed plover habitat at all, says Jackson, who has lived in the town since 1999 and whose familys roots in South Bruce Peninsula go back to the mid-1800s. In fact, we maintain that weve created habitat for the piping plover. The plovers like a clean beach with sparse vegetation. And the very fact that they returned to the north end after we rehabilitated it proved that. Francie Cuthbert, a leading plover expert, says Jackson is mistaken. Plovers do not, unless theyre desperate, nest in a clean beach thats been groomed as in flattened which is one of the things that was done at Sauble, says Cuthbert, a wildlife biologist specializing in water birds at the University of Minnesota. So-called clean beaches leaves them vulnerable to predators. Cuthberts research since the mid-1980s is credited by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as crucial to conservation plans that saved piping plovers in the Great Lakes. She will be testifying as an expert witness for the prosecution in the Sauble Beach court case. Its an important case because there are other locations in the Great Lakes with similar conflicts, Cuthbert says. This will maybe set a precedent. Cuthbert visited Sauble to prepare for the case. She describes the impact of the towns beach work as shocking, and insists some small dunes were flattened. She calls Sauble Beach the most altered coastal ecosystem shes seen on the Great Lakes. The whole stretch of Sauble is what I would call a very degraded coastal shoreline, she says. Its been managed for people. Its been managed for a very long time without recognition of the importance of biodiversity. There is an effort to protect plovers, but its not a serious effort on the part of the town, Cuthbert adds. Theyre really fighting it. The return of plovers to Sauble doesnt mean they like the towns beach work, Cuthbert insists. The birds tend to return where they nested successfully, and a growing population means more are searching for habitat throughout the Great Lakes. To illustrate her point, Cuthbert compares the breeding success of plovers at Sauble with that at Wasaga Beach, where she says beach maintenance is less disruptive and the birds more widely embraced. From 2007 to 2018, a total of 34 breeding pairs nested on Sauble Beach. They produced 35 chicks that fledged, which means they flew at least 50 metres non-stop. That happens within 23 to 28 days of hatching, if they survive. Fledged chicks will stay on the beach for several more weeks, gaining strength before migrating. Wasaga Beach, on Georgian Bay, has a significantly better record. The first breeding plovers nested in 2008. By 2018, a total of 36 breeding pairs had nested and 64 chicks fledged. Last year both Wasaga and Sauble had three nesting pairs of plovers. Nine chicks fledged at Wasaga, two at Sauble. Cuthbert says Saubles clean, flattened beach leaves piping plovers more vulnerable to predators. Recently, Jackson was in Toronto to negotiate a beach management plan with the ministry of the environment. She says talks for such a plan have gone far better since the ministry of natural resources is no longer responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act. She expects the plan to be finalized within a month. In the meantime, the defiant mayor is planning on winning at trial. Were very confident in our case. We dont expect to be facing fines at all. Ontarians will soon learn the names of the provinces highest paid doctors. The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to hear an appeal from physicians who wanted to keep the names of top OHIP billers secret. The Ontario Medical Association and two small groups of doctors had sought to overturn a lower court ruling that granted the Star access to the names and OHIP payments of the top 100 billing physicians in the province. The Supreme Court decision means the Ontario Ministry of Health must comply with a 2016 order from the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario to release physician-identified billing data to the Star. The ruling, which awards costs to the Star, ends a five-year quest to get access to the information. We are very happy with this decision. The Stars fight for the release of this information is not a fight against doctors, but for the publics right to understand how their tax money is being spent, said Star Editor Irene Gentle. As previous courts ruled, this information is in the public interest, helps people keep the government accountable and contributes to a better understanding of how their health dollars are being spent, she continued. Read more: Billings by Ontario doctors are secret: Should they be? Health ministry ordered to disclose names on OHIP billings New Ontario Health agency would overhaul disconnected medical system, minister says That it took five years to get here is an example of why public service journalism is both expensive and important. Reaction to the Supreme Court decision from the province and OMA reveals the two parties are now looking at proactively disclosing physician-identified OHIP billing data. Under proactive disclosure, the province would regularly make the information public on its own accord and not be forced to do so. The ministry is working with the Ontario Medical Association to look at how physician billings might be disclosed in the future, but those are very early discussions, said a written statement from the health ministry. OMA president Dr. Nadia Alam sent an email to doctors after the decision, stating: Physician billings should be disclosed only by an Act of Legislature, as in other provinces. To this end, we have had some preliminary discussions with government about how physician billings might be disclosed in the future so that it makes sense and includes appropriate contextual information. Ontario Privacy Commissioner Brian Beamish said he is pleased the order from his office to release physician-identified billing data will finally be honoured. This kind of information should be in the public realm, he said. My office has consistently argued in favour of proactive disclosure by government organizations, particularly of information relating to expenditures of taxpayer dollars. This type of information should be released to the public without requiring a freedom-of-information request or the involvement of our office, Beamish said. In 2015, his office called on government organizations to publicly release all contracts in the interests of transparency and accountability. Given the courts decision today, OHIP billings would be a suitable candidate for automatic disclosure, perhaps on an annual basis, Beamish said. In April 2014, the Star filed a freedom-of-information request to the health ministry, seeking names, medical specialities and OHIP payments of the top 100 billers in each of the past five years. The ministry responded by releasing the payments and specialties for most of the physicians in question, but not their names. Disclosing names would be an unjustified invasion of personal privacy, the ministry reasoned. The Star successfully appealed the ministrys decision to the privacy commissioner. The doctors then appealed the privacy commissioners order to the Ontario Divisional Court, but lost. They tried again with the Ontario Court of Appeal, but lost there too. Thursdays decision from Canadas highest court the court of last resort brings an end to the legal battles. We are glad the Supreme Court didnt see a need to revisit the well-reasoned decisions from the Ontario courts, said Star lawyer Iris Fischer. In ordering the release of the names, privacy commission adjudicator John Higgins wrote in his 2016 decision that they do not constitute personal information and do not qualify for the personal privacy exemption under Ontarios Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The names, in conjunction with payment amounts, relate to doctors in their professional or business capacities, he said, adding they do not reveal anything inherently personal in nature. Higgins sided with the Star in finding that there is a compelling public interest in disclosure: I am aware that these payments do not reflect the physicians personal income, as they represent gross revenue that does not take overhead expenses or payments to other physicians or staff members into account. Nevertheless, it is an inescapable fact that these payments consume a substantial amount of the Ontario governments budget, and regardless of the fact that the physicians are not public servants, these amounts reflect payments for public services provided to the public and paid for by taxpayers. Higgins added: In my view, the concept of transparency, and in particular, the closely related goal of accountability, requires the identification of parties who receive substantial payments from the public purse, whether they are providing services to public bodies under contract or, as in this case, providing services to the public through their own business activities under an umbrella of public funding. At more than $12 billion, physician compensation accounts for about 10 per cent of the entire provincial budget. The top 100 OHIP billers took in a combined $191 million in 2012-13, according to data supplied by the ministry. The highest biller alone, an ophthalmologist, claimed more than $6 million. The highest paid cardiologist claimed more than $3 million. Nineteen doctors received payments of more than $2 million each. Among the top 100 billers that year were 27 ophthalmologists and 21 radiologists. Physician compensation has been a major source of dispute in Ontario in recent years. It took intervention by an arbitration board to settle a contract dispute earlier this year between the province and OMA, which represents 31,500 practising doctors. The two sides had been at loggerheads for more than four years, unable to reach a negotiated settlement on their own. Even within the profession, the battle over public dollars is ongoing as doctors try to work out how to divvy up the payment pie between medical specialties. An internal OMA report obtained by the Star last year found that some specialties are underpaid and others overpaid. It called for adjustments to be made. Meantime, a recently formed appropriateness working group is endeavouring to eliminate or restrict inappropriate or overused physician services, which they estimate will be worth $100 million in 2019-20 and $360 million the following year. In ordering the creation of the group, the arbitration board noted that the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Choosing Wisely Canada estimate as much as 30 per cent of medical services are unnecessary and inappropriate. In addition to the OMA, two smaller physicians groups have been involved in the legal challenges. One goes by the name Several Physicians Affected Directly by the Order and the other is called Affected Third Party Doctors. Together, these two groups comprise 34 physicians, all of whom are top billers and male, and more than half of whom practise in the GTA. Approximately one-third are radiologists and another third are ophthalmologists. In trying to get Higgins order quashed, lawyers for the doctors argued that the adjudicator erred in departing from previous decisions by the privacy commissioner on such matters. They said the public would wrongly assume OHIP payments and income are one and the same and fail to appreciate that doctors have overhead expenses. The Ontario Court of Appeal last year rejected all of the doctors arguments in a unanimous ruling. The year before, the Ontario Divisional Court also sided with the Star in a unanimous ruling, which stated: The rationale is that the public is entitled to information in the possession of their governments so that the public may, among other things, hold their governments accountable. The case is significant because the outcome could affect how much data on physician billings can be released in future. Beamishs office had put on hold another appeal by the Star this one seeking the release of physician-identified billings for all Ontario doctors pending the Supreme Courts decision. Beamish said that appeal is now being processed. Other jurisdictions including British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and the United States already release such data annually. SANTIAGO, Chile - The Legion of Christ religious order said Thursday that the Vatican has banned an Irish priest from public ministry for 10 years for sexually abusing a minor in Chile. The order said in a statement that the Vaticans Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also banned the Rev. John OReilly from any contact with minors for life and ordered him to live outside Latin America. OReilly can appeal. As a congregation, these acts cause us great pain and we again ask forgiveness for the suffering caused, the order said. OReilly had worked in Chile since the mid-1980s. He was convicted in a civil court in 2014 of sexually abusing a minor while he was a chaplain at a school operated by the legion in the capital. The court also banned him from any job near children and included him in a database for registered abusers. Congress revoked the honorary Chilean citizenship it gave OReilly in 2008. OReilly has denied any wrongdoing. Under an order from Chiles government, OReilly left the country in 2018 after finishing the four-year sentence. He has been living at the home of the Legionaries of Christ in Rome since then, said Father Aaron Smith, the orders International Communications Director. Hes not exercising any public ministry, independently of whether he decides to use his right of appeal or not, Smith told The Associated Press. He has been in the Legionaries of Christ since 1965 and doesnt have his own resources. In the community, his superiors and brothers are making sure that he abides by the sentences of the both the civil and ecclesiastical law. ___ Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report. BEIJING - Chinese police have seized a haul of methamphetamine and heroin concealed in a truckload of bananas believed to have come from Myanmar. State media reported Thursday that the drug shipment weighing 144.5 kilograms (318.5 pounds) was seized in the city of Tongren in the southern province of Guizhou after a tipoff. The shipment was believed to have originated in Myanmar and crossed the border into Chinas Yunnan province on Saturday. One suspect was arrested in the seizure which took place Saturday. Yunnan borders the infamous Golden Triangle drug producing region where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet. The U.N.s anti-drug agency said last month that production of methamphetamine is skyrocketing in Southeast Asia, with prices dropping and usage expanding. China prosecutes drug crimes harshly but remains a major market due partly to rising incomes in the country of 1.4 billion people. Earlier this month, customs agents in the semi-autonomy Chinese territory of Hong Kong seized a massive haul of cocaine with an estimated street value of $13 million and arrested one suspect. As a major Asian port city, Hong Kong is considered a key transit point for contraband from illegal drugs to endangered wildlife parts. Much of that is bound for mainland China or Southeast Asia where drug laws tend to be much stricter. Meanwhile, U.S. officials have repeatedly pointed to China as the main source of synthetic opioids shipped into the country directly by mail or transported via Mexico. China denies that claim, but said this month it would begin regulating all fentanyl-related drugs as a class of controlled substances. BEIJING - One of Chinas three major state-owned airlines has joined carriers that are asking Boeing Co. for compensation after suspending use of its 737 Max jetliner following two fatal crashes. Executives of China Eastern Airlines Ltd. said at a news conference Tuesday the carrier has lodged claims with Boeing over the disruption, according to Chinese news reports. The reports by state television, the China Youth Daily and other outlets gave no financial details. But they said the impact on China Eastern was limited because the suspension came during a slow travel period. A public relations manager for China Eastern who would give only his surname, Ye, declined to give further details. China was among the first governments to order carriers to suspend use of the 737 Max last month following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a total of 346 people. China is, along with North America and Europe, one of the biggest global markets for jetliners. That makes how Chinese carriers and regulators react to Boeings problems critical for the company. Investigators suggested a flight-control system was to blame for both 737 Max crashes. Boeing says it is working on new software to get planes back in the air. On Thursday, Chinas biggest aircraft leasing company said it will decide how to proceed with planned 737 Max purchases once it sees how Boeing resolves potential problems. State-owned China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd. has ordered 100 737 Max planes but suffered no immediate disruption because it has none in its fleet, said a company spokeswoman, Song Xuan. The company buys Boeing, Airbus and other foreign aircraft and leases them to Chinese carriers. We expect there might be a little bit of delay in delivery, but that is not for sure, said Song. Boeing estimates Chinese carriers will buy 7,700 jetliners over the next two decades. The Chinese government alternates orders between Boeing and Airbus in order to maintain competition and hold down prices. A state-owned manufacturer also is developing a Chinese competitor to the 737 and Airbuss A320. BERLIN - A Berlin museum is opening an exhibition based on years of research into expressionist painter Emil Nolde that chips away at the remnants of his image as a victim of the Nazi regime. Nolde, who died in 1956, was among the prominent artists whose work was condemned as degenerate art under Nazi rule. But he was also a Nazi party member and, as the exhibition presented Thursday at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum shows, an anti-Semite and believer in Nazi ideology who held out hopes of winning the regimes recognition even after he was banned in 1941 from exhibiting, selling and publishing. The show also explores Noldes elevation as an artistic pioneer and Nazi victim after World War II. It closes with Breakers, which hung for years in Chancellor Angela Merkels office until Merkel recently returned it to Berlins museum authority for the exhibition. Our view of Nolde will have to change, and our thinking about this artistic figure will have to be a different one, museum director Udo Kittelmann told reporters. It is only now obvious how systematically he ingratiated himself with Nazism and particularly its anti-Semitism. The exhibition is the result of a research project that started in 2013. Historians and curators Aya Soika and Bernhard Fulda were granted unrestricted access to archives containing more than 25,000 documents at the Nolde Foundation in Seebuell, near the Danish border, where the artist lived. The exhibition includes documents from throughout Noldes career, including anti-Semitic letters from the artist dating back to before World War I. It explores his conviction that he was a misunderstood artistic genius and his claim that he was boycotted by a supposedly Jewish-dominated art scene. Nolde was Heinrich Himmlers guest of honour at an event in 1933, months after Adolf Hitler took power, and positioned himself as a pioneer of pure German art in a 1934 memoir. In 1935, Essens Museum Folkwang acquired more than 450 graphic works by Nolde. In 1937, however, 48 Nolde works were taken from German museum collections to become part of the Nazis travelling degenerate art exhibition. Nolde wrote to propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels asking him to end the defamation of his work and trumpeting his fight against the foreign infiltration of German art. He did succeed in getting some works returned, and meanwhile produced a series of Viking Paintings more in tune with the tastes of the time. Nolde, whose Nazi party membership has long been known, was exonerated in the post-war denazification process, largely because of his ban from exhibiting. His work later found a place in the offices of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and, more recently, Merkel. Merkel hasnt commented on giving up the Nolde paintings from her office, beyond saying shed been asked to return the loan. She also hasnt given a reason for deciding against hanging two replacement works she was offered by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, another expressionist whose work was classified as degenerate but who is known to have made anti-Semitic statements during WWI. After the war, the perception of the Nazi era was that there were perpetrators, followers and victims, and Emil Nolde could, thanks to the degenerate art campaign, easily be classified in the group of the victims, Nolde Foundation director Christian Ring said. Emil Nolde has a lot to thank Adolf Hitlers reactionary taste in art for. Ring conceded that, after the war, the foundation contributed to upholding Noldes misleading image. Today, more than 50 years later, we in Seebuell no longer see any reason to protect Nolde from himself, he said. His art, which was pioneering for expressionism and modernism, is strong enough to withstand the discussion about his relationship with Nazism. BRIJESTA, Croatia - Chinas prime minister visited a construction site in Croatia on Thursday where a major European Union-funded bridge is being built by a Chinese state-owned company. The China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) in 2018 won an international bid to construct a 2.4-kilometre (1.5-mile) long bridge over the Adriatic Sea. The 420 million euro ($473 million) construction is 85% financed by the EU, and is a rare Chinese project in Europe that went through a regular bidding process. EU member Croatia is hosting a two-day summit between China and 16 regional countries on expanding business between China and the region, which is dubbed 16+1. The (Peljesac) bridge is a pilot project, both for co-operation between 16+1 countries and for co-operation between China and the European Union because a Chinese company had won an open tender for its construction in a fair competition, said Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. Describing the construction of the bridge as the biggest and the most important infrastructure project in his country, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said it was also a guarantee of future co-operation between Zagreb and Beijing. The construction is set to be completed in January 2021. Once completed, it will reunite Croatias territory by connecting the region around the southern resort city of Dubrovnik with the rest of the mainland Croatia. The two parts of Croatia are currently divided by a small stretch of Bosnian territory. In recent years, Beijing has been pouring in funds into the Central and Eastern European countries as part of its strategic Belt and Road project, which includes upgrading infrastructure and is aimed at creating a network of transport and trade links between China and Europe. EU officials, however, worry that the Chinese investments boost the Asian countrys economic and political clout in the region. LONDON - Julian Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, was arrested at the Embassy of Ecuador in London Thursday seven years after he first took refuge there. A look at key events in the Assange saga: August 2010: Swedish prosecutor issues arrest warrant for Assange based on one womans allegation of rape and anothers allegation of molestation. The warrant was withdrawn shortly, with prosecutors citing insufficient evidence for the rape allegation. Assange denies the allegations. September 2010: Swedens director of prosecutions reopens rape investigation. Assange leaves Sweden for Britain Sept.27. November 2010: Swedish police issue international arrest warrant for Assange. December 2010: Assange surrenders to police in London and is detained pending extradition hearing. High Court grants Assange bail on Dec. 16. Feb. 24, 2011: District court in Britain rules Assange should be extradited to Sweden. Dec. 5, 2011: Assange granted an appeal to the Supreme Court. May 30, 2012: Supreme Court rejects Assanges appeal. June 2012: Assange asks Supreme Court to reopen case; court refuses. Assange enters Ecuadorian embassy in central London, seeking asylum on June 19. Police set up round-the-clock guard to arrest him if he steps outside. Aug. 16, 2012: Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador. July 2014: Assange loses bid to have an arrest warrant issued in Sweden against him cancelled. A judge in Stockholm upholds the warrant alleging sexual offences against two women. March 2015: Swedish prosecutors ask to question Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy. Aug. 13, 2015: Swedish prosecutors drop investigations into some allegations against Assange because of the statute of limitations; investigation into a rape allegation remains active. Oct. 12, 2015: Metropolitan Police end their 24-hour guard outside the Ecuadorean embassy but say theyll arrest Assange if he leaves ending a three-year police operation estimated to have cost more than 12 million pounds ($17 million). Feb. 5, 2016: Assange claims total vindication as the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention finds that he has been unlawfully detained and recommends he be immediately freed and given compensation. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond calls the finding frankly ridiculous. April 6, 2017: Ecuadors president-elect, Lenin Moreno, warns Assange that as a condition of asylum granted in 2012, he is not allowed to meddle in politics following comments on Twitter. May 19, 2017: Swedish prosecutors drop their investigation into rape allegation against Assange, and the European arrest warrant is withdrawn because there is no prospect of bringing Assange to Sweden. British police say he is still wanted for jumping bail in 2012. September 2018: Ecuadors president says his country and Britain are working on a legal solution to allow Assange to leave the embassy in the medium term. October 2018: Assange seeks court injunction pressing Ecuador to provide him basic rights he said the country agreed to when it first granted him asylum. November 2018: A U.S. court filing that appears to inadvertently reveal the existence of a sealed criminal case against Assange is discovered by a researcher. No details are confirmed. April 2, 2019: Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno blames WikiLeaks for recent allegations of corruption. April 5, 2019: A senior Ecuadorian official says no decision has been made to expel Assange from the London embassy despite rumours he could be kicked out soon. April 11, 2019: London police arrest Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy for breaching bail conditions in 2012, as well as on behalf of U.S. authorities, shortly after Ecuadors government withdrew his asylum status. For almost seven years, Julian Assange has lived in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London. The WikiLeaks founder feared that if he left the diplomatic outpost, located in an apartment building in the post neighborhood of Knightsbridge, he would be arrested by British authorities. In the end, however, Assange didnt need to be kicked out for British police to arrest him: Police officers went into the embassy. A video of the arrest showed Assange, grey-bearded and pale after years indoors, being pulled out the embassy and pushed into a waiting police van. But how were British police officers legally able to enter the building, if it was under the diplomatic control of Ecuador? The answer is simple: Ecuador allowed them to. On social media, some supporters of Assange said that the act was in violation of the Vienna Convention, an international accord that dictates how host countries should treat diplomats and embassies on their soil. Assange, an Australian citizen, had claimed political asylum in the Ecuadoran embassy in 2012. There is understandable confusion about how embassies and consulates operate, with many mistakenly claiming they are sovereign territory that the host country cannot violate. But the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations does lay out a number of parameters for how embassies and consulates interact with their host countries under international law. These rules are rarely broken. One element of the Vienna Convention is that police and security officials cannot enter an embassy simply because they want to. This was why the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was not immediately searched by Turkish authorities last year after the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, for example. It is also why British authorities did not enter the Ecuadoran Embassy for years, even though they were prepared to arrest Assange the moment he left and the surveillance came at considerable cost to the British state. The British Foreign Office even argued in 2012 that it had the right to revoke the embassys diplomatic status under the countrys Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act, passed in 1987, but it ultimately did not carry through on this threat. Article 22 of the Vienna Convention is quite clear that police and security officials cannot enter a diplomatic building. However, it does allow for one exemption: When the head of the diplomatic mission requests their presence. The premises of the mission shall be inviolable, the text reads. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission. Ultimately, it appears to have been the deterioration of relations between Assange and his hosts that legally allowed British police to enter the building. Londons Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Thursday that they were invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadoran governments withdrawal of asylum. Ecuador also released its own statement that said it was rescinding asylum because of Assanges discourteous and aggressive behavior, arguing that Assange had broken the terms of his asylum. Ecuador has sovereignly decided to terminate the diplomatic asylum granted to Mr. Assange in 2012, President Lenin Moreno said in a video statement on Twitter. The asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable. Read more about: LONDON - A clearly frustrated European Union has given Britain a few more months to find a way out of its Brexit quagmire. Now its up to Britains squabbling politicians to work out if they can meet the new Halloween deadline. Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to brief Parliament Thursday on the results of the emergency EU summit that ended in the early hours with the bloc agreeing an extension to the countrys departure until Oct. 31. However, her path toward actually taking Britain out of the EU remains unclear. She is blocked by a strong faction in her own Conservative Party that hates her withdrawal deal and hopes to oust her, and talks aimed at winning support from the opposition Labour Party are moving forward slowly, if at all. Mays own authority has been gravely compromised by the long Brexit ordeal and she has promised to step down once Britain leaves the bloc if efforts to get rid of her more quickly do not bear fruit. Faced with so much uncertainty, EU leaders whose talks went well after midnight agreed on a new Oct. 31 cutoff date. If no extension was granted, then Britain faced the prospect of crashing out of the EU this Friday with no deal, a scenario that in Parliament worry would lead to a deep recession as tariffs are imposed on U.K. exports and other restrictions on trade are imposed. Please, do not waste this time, European Council President Donald Tusk pleaded. He said the EU was giving Britain six more months to find the best possible solution to its Brexit impasse. Like many things related to Brexit, the extension was a messy compromise. May came to an emergency summit in Brussels seeking to postpone Britains departure from the EU until June 30. Some European leaders favoured a longer extension, while French President Emmanuel Macron was wary of anything but a very short delay. Leaders of the 27 remaining EU member states met for more than six hours over a dinner of scallop and cod before settling on the end of October, with the possibility of an earlier Brexit if Britain ratifies a withdrawal agreement. May said the possibility of leaving before the deadline was a key request of hers. I continue to believe we need to leave the EU, with a deal, as soon as possible, she told reporters. She noted that if U.K. lawmakers back her Brexit deal, Britain could still leave by June 30 the Brexit deadline she had requested from the bloc and possibly as soon as May 22, which would release Britain from having to participate in elections for the European Parliament. May spoke to the 27 EU leaders for just over an hour, before they met for dinner without her to decide Britains fate. In contrast to some testy recent summits, there were signs of warmth, even humour. May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were filmed laughing over a tablet bearing an image showing the two of them speaking to their respective Parliaments on Wednesday while wearing similar blue jackets. While many leaders said they were inclined to grant a Brexit delay, Macron expressed reservations, warning as he arrived at the summit that nothing is decided. Afterward, the French president said he was satisfied with the outcome. We did the best possible compromise to preserve the unity of the 27 (other EU members) because we have left the United Kingdom more time to deliver a deal, Macron said. Tusk said that during the extension Britain will continue its sincere co-operation as a full member state, with all its rights, and as a close friend and trusted ally in the future. Several months have passed since May and the EU struck a deal laying out the terms of Britains departure and the outline of future relations. All that was needed was ratification by the British and European Parliaments. But U.K. lawmakers rejected it three times. As Britains departure date of March 29 approached with no resolution in sight, the EU gave Britain until Friday to approve a withdrawal plan, change course and seek a further delay to Brexit, or crash out of the EU with no deal to cushion the shock. Economists and business leaders have warned that a no-deal Brexit would lead to huge disruptions in trade and travel, with tariffs and customs checks causing gridlock at British ports and possible shortages of goods. The Confederation of British Industry said the Brexit extension means an imminent economic crisis has been averted for now. After all, all options from a no-deal Brexit to a general election to no Brexit at all remain on the table. May has previously said that as prime minister she could not agree to let Britain stay in the EU beyond June 30, and has promised to step down once Brexit is delivered. Many Conservative Party lawmakers want a new leader to take charge of the next stage of Brexit. But they cant force her out until the end of the year, after she survived a no-confidence vote in December. Several days of talks between Mays Conservative government and the main opposition Labour Party aimed at finding a compromise have failed to produce a breakthrough. Labour favours a softer Brexit than the government has proposed, and wants to retain a close economic relationship with the bloc. The two sides said they would resume their discussions Thursday. Pro-EU politicians said the next few months should be used to hold a new referendum on whether to leave the EU or remain. Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon said in a tweet after the extension was granted that the British people should be allowed to decide if they still want to leave. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the time had come for Britain to decide what it wants. Were giving them a very long time to take a decision, he said. You know, the European Union is not a prison. Nobody has to stay but it is also a home and we are not going to kick anyone out. As to the symbolic end date? He said it was not on the minds of the EU leaders. As I learned this evening, Halloween is not a holiday widely celebrated across the European Union, Varadkar said. ____ Katz reported from London. Associated Press writers Mike Corder and Angela Charlton in Brussels and Danica Kirka in London, and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report. KIEV, Ukraine - Ultra-right activists in Ukraine have attempted to derail a European lesbian conference in the capital of Kyiv and scuffled with security guards. Several dozen people from extreme-right groups picketed the hotel hosting the conference, which opened Thursday. Some tried to break through security cordons at the hotel entrance and used tear gas on the guards. The assailants held placards with phrases such as We are against gays and Go back to hell, sodomites. One activist, Margarita Korotkikh, said their goal was to put pressure on the government and explain that heterosexuals are against LGBT propaganda. Ukraines ultra-right has become increasingly assertive, regularly assaulting LGBT and womens rights events. International rights groups have criticized Ukrainian authorities for failing to track down and punish ultra-right activists for acts of violence and intimidation. CAIRO - After 30 years in power, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was arrested and deposed by the military on Thursday, following nearly four months of protests against his rule. The army has also taken over the country for the next two years and imposed a three-month state of emergency, plunging the nation into new uncertainty. Bashirs time in power will likely be remembered as among the most oppressive in Sudans modern history. For the last decade, he has been under a cloud of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in the region of Darfur. Here is a timeline of key events in the rise and fall of al-Bashir: 1980s A career army officer, al-Bashir assumes a leading role in the war against rebels in the south. 1985 Sudanese military overthrows former President Jaafar al-Nimeiri in a bloodless coup. The military quickly hands power to an elected government, which proves dysfunctional and only rules for a few years. 1989 Leading an alliance of the military and Islamist hard-liners, al-Bashir stages a coup against Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, dissolving the government and all political parties. He appoints himself chair of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, which rules the country, and is named defence minister. 1990 Coup attempt fails to unseat al-Bashir. 1991 Al-Bashir and his Islamist allies impose Islamic or Sharia law, fueling the division between the countrys Muslim, Arabized north and the mainly animist and Christian south. August 1993 U.S. State Department lists Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. October 1993 Al-Bashir is appointed president. 1996 Al-Bashir is re-elected president. 1997 U.S. imposes sanctions against Sudans government, accusing it of supporting terrorism. June 1998 Sudanese legislators draft a new constitution that lifts the ban on political parties. December Al-Bashir dissolves the parliament after an Islamist political ally proposes laws limiting the presidents powers. 2000 Al-Bashir wins another presidential election with over 85% of the vote. 2003 Rebel groups in Darfur attack the government in an uprising against alleged abuses and mistreatment by authorities. Al-Bashir seeks help from the Janjaweed militias, whose brutal tactics terrorize people in the region and displace more than 2 million people. A small peacekeeping force from the African Union arrives. 2005 Under international pressure, a peace deal is reached between al-Bashir and the southern Sudanese rebel group, the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army. The agreement gives southern Sudanese the right to determine whether the south would remain part of Sudan. July 2008 International Criminal Courts chief prosecutor calls for an arrest warrant against al-Bashir, citing charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Darfur. The Sudanese government, which is not a party to the treaty creating the ICC, denies the accusations and proclaims al-Bashirs innocence. March 2009 The ICC issues an arrest warrant for al-Bashir the first time that the ICC seeks the arrest of a sitting head of state charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity but not genocide. Later, a second arrest warrant is issued against al-Bashir, this time with a genocide charge. April 2010 Al-Bashir is re-elected with about 68% of vote in the countrys first multiparty elections in more than 20 years. Two main opposition rivals withdraw over alleged fraudulent practices. July 2011 South Sudan gains independence after a referendum in January. South Sudans independence causes economic difficulties in Sudan as the new country gains control over the southern oil fields, which had accounted for three-quarters of the countrys oil production. April 2015 Al-Bashir wins another five-year term in a vote marred by low turnout. November-December 2016 Hundreds of protesters take to streets against a government decision to slash fuel subsidies, as required by the International Monetary Fund. October 2017 U.S. announces partial lifting of long-standing sanctions against Sudan, citing progress by Khartoum in fighting terrorism and its commitment not to pursue arms deals with North Korea. January 2018 Protests break out across Sudan against price hikes caused by government austerity measures. August 2018 Sudans ruling National Congress Party says it would back al-Bashir as its candidate in the 2020 presidential election. Dec. 16, 2018 Al-Bashir becomes the first Arab League leader to visit Syria since civil war erupted there nearly eight years ago. He is greeted at the Damascus airport by Syrian President Bashar Assad. Dec. 19, 2018 Anti-government demonstrations erupt across Sudan, initially over steep price rises and shortages, but soon shift to calls for al-Bashir to step down. Security forces respond with a fierce crackdown that kills dozens. Feb. 19, 2019 Al-Bashir declares a state of emergency, bans all unauthorized gathering and gives security forces sweeping powers in efforts to quash the protests. April 6 A large sit-in protest begins outside the militarys headquarters in Khartoum. Over the next five days, security forces kill 22 people in attempts to clear the sit-in. The protests gain momentum after the resignation earlier in the week by Algerias President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years, in response to similar demonstrations. April 11 Sudanese army arrests al-Bashir and says it takes over for the next 2 years, suspending the countrys constitution and closing its borders and airspace. A three-month state of emergency is also imposed. JERUSALEM - A final count of election ballots on Thursday granted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud party an additional seat in parliament, making it the largest faction in the Knesset and punctuating the Israeli leaders victory. The results released by Israels central election commission showed Likud capturing a total of 36 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, compared to 35 seats for its main rival, the centrist Blue and White party. An earlier count had the two parties deadlocked. Altogether, Likud and its traditional Jewish ultra-Orthodox and nationalist allies command a 65-55 majority in parliament, putting Netanyahu in position to head the next coalition government. On Wednesday, Blue and Whites leaders conceded defeat. The final count showed another nationalist faction, the New Right party of Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, falling just short of the necessary 3.25% of the votes needed to get into parliament. Although the ballot count is complete, commission head Hanan Melzer said the results were not official and still subject to review. He said final certified results are to be handed to the countrys president next Wednesday. New Right, which fell just a few hundred votes short of entering parliament, said it would challenge the count. The results presented late Thursday did not significantly alter earlier results from Tuesdays election. They included a count of votes of soldiers, diplomats, prisoners and hospital patients who vote in unusual circumstances. The only shift was that Likud picked up one seat from one of its traditional allies, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism. The New Right had one of the most disappointing performances of the election. The pair of popular pro-settler ministers split from their religious-nationalist Jewish Home party and sought greater power by appealing to new secular voters. The manoeuvr backfired. Netanyahu still managed to cruise to a relatively easy victory that secures him a fourth consecutive term in office, and fifth overall. One of the major factors hastening Netanyahus victory was the low voter turnout among Israels Arab residents, which was below 50 per cent. Netanyahus campaign against Arab politicians, together with a new alliance with anti-Arab extremists and the passage last year of a contentious nation-state law that enshrined Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people alone, deepened calls for an election boycott in Arab communities. Arab leaders accused Netanyahu of demonizing their sector throughout the campaign. Only a big push in the final hours of voting secured the survival of the two primary Arab parties. Still, they saw their representation dip. On election day, the predominantly Arab Hadash party filed a complaint that hundreds of Likud activists were monitoring Arab polling stations with hidden cameras. Israels elections committee swiftly banned the cameras, but Arab leaders accused Likud of intimidating voters. Netanyahu defended the practice, saying cameras helped guarantee a legitimate vote. On Thursday, a public relations firm said it orchestrated the operation on Likuds behalf, distributing 1,200 hidden cameras, and claiming to have played a role in the suppressed vote. We put together an operation that contributed crucially to one of the most important achievements of the right-wing bloc: keeping the Arab vote legal, the PR company, Kaizler Inbar, wrote in a Facebook post, accompanied by a picture of firm executives alongside Netanyahu and his wife Sara. Thanks to us placing observers in every polling station we managed to lower the voter turnout to under 50 per cent, the lowest in recent years! Lucy Aharish, a prominent Arab media personality, said it definitely played a role and was insulting that the ruling party would spy on the voting of its own citizens. BEIRUT - He was the worlds only sitting head of state wanted for genocide. He lost a third of his country, a quarter of its population and most of its oil resources when South Sudan broke away. Yet Sudans Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in a military coup in 1989, was able to keep his grip on power for 30 years in what proved to be one of Sudans most brutal chapters. It was not until months of popular protests erupted against him that the 75-year-old president finally lost the support of his military commanders, who arrested and deposed him Thursday. In announcing al-Bashirs overthrow, his defence minister, Gen. Awad Mohammed Ibn Ouf, described him all too accurately as stubborn and persistent. Famous for breaking out in dance and jabbing his trademark cane in the air, al-Bashir exuded defiance even at the most critical moments of his political career. When he was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2009 on charges of committing crimes in Darfur, he responded by expelling a dozen aid groups working in the war-plagued region, where up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million driven from their homes by militias he backed. Then, he travelled there, appearing at government-organized rallies brimming with supporters. Tell them all, the ICC prosecutor, the members of the court and everyone who supports this court that they are under my shoe, al-Bashir said, brandishing a sword. The army then mobilized troops to confront any threat to him and renewed its allegiance to him. Since independence in 1956, Sudan has bounced between tumultuous party politics and military rule. But al-Bashir successfully presented himself as the leader of a new wave of political Islam, based on an alliance between Islamists and the military. As a young officer, al-Bashir was groomed and trusted by the Islamist movement, which played a key role in propping him up for years. After leading his coup with a few fellow officers, al-Bashir declared the imposition of Islamic Sharia law. The new rules included stoning and amputations as punishments. Also, Islamic judges were sent to the countrys mainly animist, Christian south, fueling the civil war that was already going on for years. One of his allies, religious scholar Hassan Turabi, invited Osama bin Laden to Sudan in 1991, prompting the U.S. to place Sudan on its list of states sponsoring terrorism. The U.S. later imposed sanctions on the government and carried out an airstrike on a factory in Sudan it said was used by al-Qaida to produce nerve gas. Al-Bashir disputed the accusations and blamed hostile neighbours. He called bin Laden a businessman undertaking a major infrastructure project in Sudan. (After five years, bin Laden was expelled from Sudan under pressure from the U.S.) In addition to relying on Islamist ideology, Al-Bashir used the countrys oil wealth to boost a class of businessmen faithful to him and created loyal militias to protect his rule, employing them to crack down on rebels in the countrys western Darfur region. The resulting atrocities led to the charges of genocide. The indictment increased his international isolation but didnt prevent him from travelling. The strongman even attended last years World Cup soccer final in Moscow, taking his place among other heads of state in luxury seating at the stadium. And he paid a surprise visit last December to Damascus, Syria, which has been shunned by other Arab countries because of the civil war there. After years of promising to hold his country together amid disputes with the oil-rich south, al-Bashir quickly accepted the referendum results in 2010 that created one of the worlds newest countries, South Sudan. While criticized, al-Bashir hoped to get concessions from the West in return. Al-Bashir governed with an iron fist while also zigzagging strategically to divide his opponents. He often shuffled his aides, once firing his presidential adviser after accusing him of plotting a coup in 2012, only to bring him back as intelligence chief last year to deal with growing unrest. When economic hardship deepened after the split with South Sudan, protests inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings broke out in the country as early as 2012. Al-Bashir at first ridiculed the protests, saying: They talk of an Arab Spring. Let me tell them that in Sudan we have a hot summer, a burning hot summer that burns its enemies. Then, when the protests persisted, he promised not to stand for re-election, only to renege and run in 2015. He will be remembered as someone who lied his way in power. He lied a lot, said Wasil Taha, a Sudanese editor of an English-language newspaper who emigrated to the U.S. This time, the protests, combined with the economic downturn, proved to be Al-Bashirs undoing. As the pressure mounted, the genocide charges and the threat of being handed over to the International Criminal Court seemed to limit his options. A prominent exiled Sudanese cartoonist drew a caricature of al-Bashir sitting on a throne, with one of its broken legs replaced by a brick. The caption: I will get down, but just tell me where to get down. _____ El Deeb covered Sudan from 2008 to 2010. Mike Corder in Amsterdam contributed to this report. CHEBAA, Lebanon - Akram Kanaan looked toward an Israeli military position on a snow-capped mountain that overlooks the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, pointing toward the scenic area captured by Israel more than five decades ago. No matter how long it takes, he says, it will eventually return to Lebanons sovereignty. Like many others in this area where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet, Kanaan a member of Chebaas municipal council is angry about President Donald Trumps decision to recognize Israels sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981. The American president has no right to give Israel lands that belong to Syria and Lebanon, he says. These are Arab territories that will be liberated sooner or later the way the south was liberated, said Kanaan standing near Chebaas main school as its buses left the compound at the end of a school day. Trumps move last month has caused concern among Lebanese officials that it would mean also recognizing the occupied Chebaa Farms and nearby Kfar Chouba hills, captured along with the Golan, as Israeli territory. Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the U.S. recognition undermines Lebanons claim to the territory. The origin of the dispute over ownership of the Chebaa farms dates back to the French colonial period, when France drew maps of the area without officially demarcating the border. Following an 18-year occupation, Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000, but held on to the farms. Hezbollah claimed the withdrawal to be incomplete and demanded, along with the Lebanese government, that Israel withdraws. Israel rejected the demands, saying the land was Syrian when it was captured in 1967. Syria has held an ambiguous position and generally refuses to demarcate the border before Israel withdraws from the Golan. The U.N., which doesnt recognize Israels sovereignty over the Golan, has said Lebanons claim is to be settled along with the Golans fate. The territory is controversial, even among Lebanese themselves. Although most Lebanese agree that the Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba hills are part of their country, anti-Syrian politicians have suggested it serves as a pretext for Hezbollah to hang on to its weapons and have called for the demarcation of the Lebanon-Syria border, a demand repeated by Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday even as he said the territory is Lebanese. Politicians allied with the Syrian government say there is no need for such demarcation. The area this week looked more like a tourist attraction, albeit deserted, rather than a front line, with rivers and springs flowing, birds chirping and shepherds leading their herds in the mostly green area amid clear weather. According to Kanaan, the total size of the Lebanese area still occupied by Israel since June 1967 is about 250 square kilometres (96 square miles) or about 2.5% of Lebanons total territories. Kanaan says the occupied area is owned by Lebanese citizens and that many of them have documents proving their ownership registered in the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon, the provincial capital of south Lebanon. Arab countries have unanimously rejected the U.S. recognition of Israeli control over the Golan, calling the Trump administrations policies unfairly biased toward Israel. On the edge of Chebaa, shepherds were seen taking their herds of sheep and goats near a fence built by Israel. About every 100 metres (109 yards) white and blue barrels marked the so-called blue line, or the border that the U.N. drew after Israels withdrawal in 2000. The area has been calm since August 2006 after a U.N. Security Council resolution ended a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanons Hezbollah group. Soldiers at Lebanese army checkpoints on roads leading to Chebaa and Kfar Chouba checked the identity cards of people visiting the area to make sure no strangers enter. White U.N. vehicles with light blue flags could be seen along the fence that marks the border. Near al-Naqar lake, three U.N. peacekeepers stood outside their armoured personnel carrier keeping an eye on any suspicious move. Next to them stood a giant poster with a picture of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser and one of his famous quotes that reads: What was taken by force can only be regained by force. Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the U.N. force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL, said the issue of Chebaa is one that is discussed in New York at U.N. headquarters and not part of our mandate. Nevertheless, the position of member states is not necessarily the position of the United Nations, Tenenti said when asked about Trumps decision. Nothing has changed, and we are continuing with our work in the south of Lebanon, to monitor the cessation of hostilities and to work closely with the Lebanese army, he said. In nearby Kfar Chouba, shops were open in its main square where a group of people gathered at the main bakery, while others bought freshly picked vegetables and fruits. With deep regret, this guy who is called Trump who is the president of the United States of America, the most important country in the world, is acting like a thug, said grocer Riad Khalifeh who was 23 when Israeli forces captured the hills overlooking his hometown of Kfar Chouba in 1967. Who gave you the right to give a land that belongs to me or to Palestine or to Syria to an enemy that is occupying it? Khalifeh asked. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is sending his best wishes to son Eric and daughter-in-law Lara over the news that theyre expecting their second child. Trump tweeted Wednesday: CONGRATULATIONS to @EricTrump and @LaraLeaTrump on the great news. So proud! Lara Trump posted a photo on Twitter earlier in the day with Eric Trump, their 1 1/2-year-old son, Luke, and their two dogs. She wrote: Baby number two coming this August!! All of the boys are excited to become big brothers!! It will be the 10th grandchild for the president. His eldest son Donald Trump Jr. has five children with his ex, Vanessa Trump, and daughter Ivanka Trump has three children with husband Jared Kushner. DES MOINES, Iowa - Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris says she owns a gun and called it a false choice that the only two gun control options are complete, unrestricted access or a desire to seize everyones guns. The senator from California told reporters after a campaign event in Iowa that she is a gun owner. She says, I own a gun for probably the reason that a lot of people do: for personal safety. The 2020 White House hopeful says that Americans are being offered a false choice, which suggests youre either in favour of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyones guns away. She says she supports smart gun-safety laws, such as universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump seemed gratified Thursday that his attorney general has endorsed a key talking point of the presidents supporters: that there was spying on Trumps 2016 campaign. But Trump went a step beyond Attorney General William Barr, accusing the government of committing an illegal, unprecedented act. The presidents comments came a day after Barr testified at a congressional hearing that he believes spying did occur on the campaign, suggesting the origins of the Russia investigation that shadowed Trumps presidency for nearly two years may have been mishandled. Barr provided no details about what spying may have taken place but appeared to be alluding to a surveillance warrant the FBI obtained on a former Trump associate. He later said during the hearing that he wasnt sure there had been improper surveillance and wants to ensure all proper procedures were followed. I think what he said was absolutely true. There was absolutely spying into my campaign, Trump said Thursday. Ill go a step further. It was my opinion it was illegal spying, unprecedented spying, and something that should never be allowed to happen in our country again. During Wednesdays hearing before a Senate appropriations subcommittee, Barr said he was not saying improper surveillance occurred and was looking into the matter. Barr may have been referring to a surveillance warrant the FBI obtained in the fall of 2016 to monitor the communications of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing. The warrant was obtained after Page had left the campaign and was renewed several times. Critics of the Russia investigation have seized on the fact that the warrant application cited Democratic-funded opposition research, done by a former British spy, into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia. Barrs comments aligned him with the president and his supporters who insist his 2016 campaign was unfairly targeted by the FBI. They come at a time when Barrs independence is under scrutiny from congressional Democrats as he prepares a redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers report on the Russia investigation. Mueller concluded his investigation last month and submitted a nearly 400-page confidential report to Barr. The attorney general then sent Congress a four-page letter that detailed Muellers principal conclusions. Democrats have questioned how Barr could boil down Muellers full report so quickly and allege that it may have been written in a favourable way for the president. Democrats strongly pushed back on Barrs remarks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, along with the top Democrat on the House and Senate intelligence panels, argued that Barrs words undermined both his own credibility and that of the Justice Department. All four are on a panel known as the Gang of Eight that is regularly briefed on the most sensitive intelligence matters. Pelosi told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she doesnt trust Barr. Schumer said Barrs remarks just destroyed the scintilla of credibility he had left. While congressional Republicans have long questioned the origins of the Russia investigation, suggesting that Justice Department officials conspired against Trump, Democrats have argued it was legitimate. In his letter, Barr said the special counsel did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump associates during the campaign, but Mueller did not reach a definitive conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Instead, Mueller presented evidence on both sides of the obstruction question, but Barr said he did not believe the evidence was sufficient to prove that Trump had obstructed justice. Barr has said he expects to release a redacted version of Muellers report next week. The Justice Departments inspector general has been investigating the early days of the FBIs Russia probe, but Barr has said he wants to pull together the different reviews underway and see if there are remaining questions that need to be addressed. ___ Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Alan Fram contributed to this report. ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Anchorage police have released the name of a woman killed in a weekend home fire. Police say 47-year-old Katherine Schmidt died at the home in south Anchorage. The cause of death is under investigation. The Anchorage Fire Department shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday received 911 calls reporting a fire in a one-story home on Strawberry Road in the Sand Lake neighbourhood. Arriving firetrucks found the home fully engulfed with flames showing through the roof and windows. Firefighters brought the fire under control just before 3 a.m. and found Schmidt in the burned home. The fires cause has not been determined. WASHINGTON - It was a far cry from I love WikiLeaks! President Donald Trump declared that I know nothing about WikiLeaks after its disheveled founder Julian Assange was hauled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to face charges, a stark contrast to how candidate Trump showered praise on Assanges hacking organization night after night during the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. Asked about Thursdays arrest, Trump said at the White House, Its not my thing. I know there is something having to do with Julian Assange. Ive been seeing whats happened with Assange and that will be a determination, I would imagine, mostly by the attorney general, whos doing an excellent job. So, hell be making a determination . I know nothing really about him. Its not my deal in life. But WikiLeaks was Trumps deal in 2016 as he welcomed the political boost his campaign got and cheered on the release of Clinton campaign emails. On the same October day that the Access Hollywood tape emerged, revealing that Trump had bragged in 2005 about groping women, WikiLeaks began releasing damaging emails from Hillary Clintons campaign manager, John Podesta. Trump and his allies, facing a tough battle in the campaigns final month, seized on the illegal dumps and weaponized them. WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks, Trump said in Pennsylvania. This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove, Trump said in Michigan. Boy, I love reading WikiLeaks, Trump said in Ohio. All told, Trump extolled WikiLeaks more than 100 times, and a poster of Assange hung backstage at the Republicans debate war room. At no point from a rally stage did Trump express any misgivings about how WikiLeaks obtained the emails from the Clinton campaign or about the accusations of stealing sensitive U.S. government information, which led to the charges against Assange on Thursday. Assange for years has been under U.S. Justice Department scrutiny for WikiLeaks role in publishing thousands of government secrets. He was an important figure in special counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe, as investigators examined how WikiLeaks obtained emails that were stolen from Democratic groups. When asked about Assange in 2017, Trump said he did not support or unsupport WikiLeaks move to release hacked emails and that he would not be involved in any decision for the U.S. government to arrest Assange. I am not involved in that decision, whether or not to arrest Assange, Trump told The Associated Press then, but if they want to do it, its OK with me. The Justice Department now has charged Assange with taking part in a computer hacking conspiracy, accusing him of scheming with Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, to break a password for a classified government computer. The single charge of computer intrusion conspiracy carries up to five years in prison, though the Justice Department can add additional charges depending on the evidence it gathers. Manning was ordered jailed last month for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, suggesting that prosecutors are still at work. It was unclear why the Assange charge, which was brought under seal last year, was made public at this time and why he was taken into custody now weeks after Muellers investigation had concluded. None of the allegations in the case relate to Russian election interference or WikiLeaks role in publishing emails stolen from Democrats by Russian intelligence operatives. An indictment against 12 Russians last year described WikiLeaks role in publishing hacked emails in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Though the indictment said WikiLeaks had worked to co-ordinate the release of information, there was no allegation that the organization solicited the hacking of Democratic email accounts or worked with Russians. Assanges arrest provoked passionate responses overseas, and from some who had expressed concern about whistleblower protections, but the initial bipartisan reaction in Washington was relief. Im glad to see the wheels of justice are finally turning when it comes to Julian Assange, tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally. In my book, he has NEVER been a hero. His actions - releasing classified information - put our troops at risk and jeopardized the lives of those who helped us in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, said he hoped the British courts would quickly transfer Assange to U.S. custody so he can finally get the justice he deserves. Assanges lawyer has previously said he planned to fight any U.S. charges against him. Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 after he was released on bail in Britain while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations that have since been dropped. British police said Assange had been arrested Thursday for breaching his bail conditions and in relation to the U.S. arrest request. ___ Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed from Washington. ___ Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire and Tucker at http://twitter.com/@etuckerAP ___ Follow APs coverage of the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: https://www.apnews.com/WikiLeaks (Photo/pixabay.com) China's younger generations are driving up the value of the countrys pet industry, as furry animals occupy the personal lives of more and more people. The industrial chain established around pets is breeding a market that might soon be worth hundreds of billions of yuan. According to a recent report, the market value of Chinas pet industry hit 170.8 billion yuan in 2018, up 27 percent from 2017. The figure is expected to reach 200 billion by 2020. 73.6 million people in urban China had a pet last year, and those born between 1980 and 2000 accounted for 75 percent of this group. Liu Chang, who graduated from college two years ago, is now living in a 20-square meter room with three pets. She spends nearly half of her salary each month on her animals. Liu is not the only one willing to spend money on her animals. Du Min, who currently works in Beijing, is another example. Du spends over 5,000 yuan ($745) on her three-year-old dog every month. A report issued by the research institute of Sinolink Securities revealed that millennials are promoting the development and upgrading of the pet industry, as many in the group are single and like the company of a pet. The industry, which until now has focused on basic demands such as food, is starting to upgrade as the status of pets within society increases. Maomao, head of an e-commerce company in the pet industry, noted that consumption upgrading of the sector applies to not only a rise in prices, but also an improvement of service quality and user experience. Following the catering industry, shopping and housekeeping services which resorted to the internet for modern solutions, the pet industry is also offering innovative services, such as a call-out vet service. The Internet has become a lifestyle for todays young people, so to offer quality services online is an obvious solution, said Qiao Wei, CEO of an online platform selling pet commodities. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A Honduran transgender migrant who was granted asylum last fall has been unlawfully held at times in solitary confinement at an immigration detention centre while her case is appealed, attorneys for the woman said Thursday. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and the National Immigrant Justice Center charged in a federal court filing that Nicole Garcia Aguilar, 24, is being held at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico, despite her asylum application being granted in October by a federal immigration judge. Government lawyers appealed the initial asylum ruling over arguments about the credibility of Garcia Aguilars claims that she had been persecuted, raped and threatened because of her gender identity and that she would continue to suffer if returned to Honduras. The filing by the advocacy groups also states that Garcia Aguilar remains in custody despite a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy that people who have been granted asylum generally merit release pending appeal. Garcia Aguilar filed her most recent request for release March 15. Immigration authorities denied that request the following week, prompting the legal challenge by the advocacy groups. Not only is ICE detaining our client illegally, they are doing so in conditions that are harmful and dangerous, said Tania Linares Garcia, a staff attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center. Immigration authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The attorneys are asking the court to either grant Garcia Aguilars immediate release or schedule a bond hearing, where federal prosecutors would have to provide evidence that her ongoing detention is justified based on whether shes a flight risk or a danger to the community. Garcia Aguilar was among a wave of Central American migrants who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in early 2018. Court documents state she asked for asylum after arriving at the port of entry in Nogales, Arizona, and has been in custody since. Her attorneys say she has been convicted of marijuana possession and is facing prostitution charges but that her criminal history involves no violence. During her time at the privately-run prison in New Mexico, Garcia Aguilar was moved from the facilitys transgender unit to solitary confinement for prolonged periods of time. Immigration officials had said the time she was kept alone was for her protection, according to the court filing. Her attorneys also argued that her chronic struggle with anxiety, depression, nightmares and panic attacks were exacerbated by the time spent in solitary confinement. TRENTON, N.J. - An appointee of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has reported to prison for his role in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal. Bill Baroni started serving his 18-month sentence Tuesday in the Loretto Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania. Baroni was an executive of the authority that operates the bridge. He was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to 24 months in what prosecutors said was a plot to create traffic jams to retaliate against a mayor who wouldnt endorse Christie. In November, a federal appeals court threw out civil rights counts against Baroni and co-defendant Bridget Kelly and ordered they be resentenced. Kelly, Christies former deputy chief of staff, is scheduled to be resentenced April 24. The former Republican governor wasnt charged, but the scandal derailed his presidential ambitions. Chicago filed a lawsuit against Jussie Smollett on Thursday in a bid to recoup the costs of investigating a racist, anti-gay attack that authorities say was orchestrated by the Empire actor as a publicity stunt, with the city saying at minimum that it now wants triple the amount it initially asked Smollett to pay. The 12-page civil lawsuit , filed in Cook County court, is the latest volley in a legal battle that shows no signs of abating since Smollett reported that masked men beat him up on Jan. 29 in Chicago, shouting slurs and wrapping a rope around his neck. The suit comes after Smollett refused a demand that he send the city $130,106 to reimburse Chicago for overtime as police sought to verify Smolletts account. The lawsuit doesnt specify an amount of money the city is seeking but does indicate it wants over $390,000 plus further relief as this Court deems just and equitable. It also asks that Smollett be ordered to foot any legal bills Chicago incurs in suing him. More than two dozen officers and detectives spent two weeks investigating Smolletts claims, with the police department forced to pay for 1,836 overtime hours, the filing says. The citys resolve to take Smollett to civil court follows a surprising decision by prosecutors in March to drop all criminal charges accusing him of staging the incident, saying they believed they could prove the charges but that it wasnt worth the time and expense. Mayor Rahm Emanuel denounced the decision as a whitewash of justice, and others criticized the Cook County states attorneys office for not requiring an apology and an admission of guilt from Smollett as a condition for tossing the case. The complaint, written by City Halls top attorney, Edward Siskel, lacks the hard-hitting language and denunciations of Smollett by Emanuel. Its devoted primarily to describing the allegations already spelled out when Smollett was charged in late February. Smollett, who is black and gay, maintains he has told the truth from the beginning. Reached by phone Thursday evening, a spokeswoman for Smolletts legal team said there wasnt an immediate comment on the lawsuit. Smolletts lawyers would have to respond with a court filing and could move in coming weeks to have the lawsuit thrown out. Smollett lawyer Mark Geragos said in a letter to the city last week that claims Smollett made the entire thing up were defamatory, accusing Chicago of trying to harass Smollett and pointing to the dismissal of charges as proof he is innocent. It also said Smollett wouldnt be intimidated into paying anything. Unless the case is settled beforehand, the lawsuit would eventually go before a jury, which would have to decide if the city or Smollett is right. If Smollett still refuses to pay after a verdict in the citys favour, his bank accounts could be frozen. Smollett admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to do some community service before charges were dropped. He also agreed to forfeit $10,000 in bond money, which the city could use against him in the civil case as an implied admission of guilt. Evidence sealed in the criminal case could be unsealed in the civil case and be presented at trial. Smollett could also be required to sit for depositions, forcing him for the first time to explain evidence that the city says shows he was lying. To the citys advantage, the threshold for proof will be lower than in criminal court. The city wont have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Smollett staged the attack in civil court, only that its more likely true than not true that he did. Among the risks for the city is that the civil litigation could end up costing far more in legal bills than it could ever hope to get from Smollett. Its also unclear if Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot is onboard with the Emanuel administrations determination to keep legal pressure on Smollett. Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor who will be Chicagos first black female mayor when shes sworn in on May 20, has indicated only that the public deserves a better explanation for why the criminal charges against Smollett were dropped. __ Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm ___ Check out the APs complete coverage of the Jussie Smollett case. SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In the winter of 2009, my wife and I found a house that looked like a great place to start our family, a three-bedroom in a hilly subdivision surrounded by dry brush just outside the Redding city limits. By that point, Id covered wildfires for the Record Searchlight newspaper for three years. Id seen fire after fire ignite during Shasta Countys blast-furnace summers in the brushy chaparral that dominates the landscape. In 2008, a freak early summer lightning storm ignited more than 86,500 acres in the area, prompting the evacuation of dozens of families. I stood in that very subdivision where we now wanted to live as residents watched a churning smoke plume on the other side the Sacramento River canyon. The fire didnt jump the river that day. But as my wife, Cara, and I toured that same subdivision, I told her, This neighbourhood is going to burn to the ground some day. We bought the house anyway. The quiet streets, the running trails and the fishing opportunities minutes away in Lake Shasta outweighed the risk. How very Californian of me. If theres one consistent thread in Californias history, its that we often ignore the profound risks that come with living in this big beautiful state the earthquakes, the mudslides, the wildfires, the floods, the droughts and, yes, even the volcanoes. Its been like that since our founding. Gov. Leland Stanford took a rowboat to his inauguration in January 1862 because Sacramento was swallowed by the same floodwaters that would turn the Central Valley into a vast inland sea stretching from Red Bluff to Bakersfield. Despite the billions weve spent on dams and levees, its only a matter of time before it happens again. Its still going to flood some day, Jeffrey Mount, a watershed expert with the Public Policy Institute of California, told me a couple of wet winters ago after Hurricane Harvey. Theres still going to be that rare large event, which will overwhelm us. Half a million Sacramentans go about their lives largely oblivious to the threat. I grew up in Mt. Shasta, a small alpine community near the Oregon border. The city is named after the massive active volcano that looms above it. When Shasta inevitably erupts, lava, debris, ash and boiling steam and gases could wipe my hometown off the map. But, man, what a great place to grow up. When I was a boy, I would bike out to the meadows by my house. Id spend hours fishing, barefooted up to my knees in creeks frigid from the melting snow pouring off my mountains glaciers. Id like to live under Shastas shadow again some day. Never mind that my home would stand on ashy soil flecked with pumice and obsidian, reminders of the eruptions of centuries past. Never mind the charred marks on the big cedars and pines, scars from wildfires that burned through Siskiyou County decades ago. Never mind that my great aunts home was one of the few left standing in her neighbourhood after the Boles Fire burned through the Siskiyou County city of Weed in 2014, torching 157 homes. I get why more than 2.7 million Californians are living in places that could erupt in a catastrophic inferno any summer, or those who move to California even though we could build as many as 1.2 million new homes over the next 30 years in the areas with states highest fire risk . I get why theyre rebuilding Santa Rosas Fountaingrove neighbourhood, which first burned by the Hanly Fire in 1964 before it burned again in 2017s Tubbs Fire. And why they rebuilt Harbison Canyon in San Diego County after it was levelled by the Laguna Fire in 1970 and again by the Cedar Fire in 2003. I get why Cheri Skipper, whose Harbison Canyon home burned in the Cedar Fire, wanted nothing more than to move back in while it was being rebuilt, despite the trauma she endured and the anxiety that still has her obsessively looking for smoke and checking local fire-watcher websites. All I wanted to do was to go home, put my head on my pillow and look out the patio and see my view, she told me as she gazed out at the green hills festooned with wildflowers after recent rains. We both knew this summer the vegetation will be brittle and dry , her canyon a wind tunnel for the Santa Anas. What I dont get is how surprised people are that these big, destructive fires keep happening. The new normal is what officials keep calling it, but last years record breaking 1.9 millions of acres burned wasnt really a record at all. If anything, were approaching something closer to an old normal. UC Berkeley researchers estimate that prior to 1800, about 4.5 million acres of California burned in a typical year. That was before we started monkeying with our climate and infesting our wild places with non-native, fire-prone vegetation. We spent a century trying to put out every fire that popped up to protect the states lucrative timber stocks and the ever-expanding sprawl. Some environmentalists argue we should stop moving to these places and rebuilding them when they burn down. They tell cities to focus on infill and building up urban centres in a sustainable way. Stop encroaching on nature. Fair enough. That certainly is the safest alternative. But thats not going to happen if Californias history is any guide. Plus, what do you do about the folks who already live in dangerous communities? Tell them they should move? Tell them firefighters arent going to try to save their homes? Californians arent totally oblivious to the dangers. There is an active debate over how much new development we should allow and where we should allow it. Theres common ground in Gov. Gavin Newsoms and President Donald Trumps executive orders to thin the forests after the Camp Fire. Of course, the devil is in the details. It remains unsettled how much logging, intentionally-set prescribed fires and other wildland management strategies California and the federal government will undertake. The reality, though, is theres only so much that can be done when you live in a state that wants to burn. Before too long, before its too late, weve all got to have a clear-eyed understanding of the risks of living in the hundreds of lovely communities like Redding, Paradise, Malibu and Santa Rosa that have encroached into the forests and chaparral. The price you pay to live there is that in any fire season, you and your family could burn. Prepare accordingly. Adopt the mindset of J. Lopez, one of two firefighters I spoke to recently whose homes survived major wildfires burning in adjacent wildlands. They still chose to live there knowing theyll almost certainly go through another one. Thats why theyre zealots about evacuation planning and minimizing the risk to their properties by clearing the vegetation around their homes. On Sunday, I got up in the morning, and two minutes later Im walking in the forest. How cool is that? said Lopez, an assistant chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. But its understanding what youre moving into and embracing it. Youre not going to change it. Nature is always going to win. It did in Redding. Last summer, I found myself driving through the neighbourhood where my wife and I had bought our first house. I was on assignment for The Sacramento Bee the morning after the Carr Fire and its infamous firenado roared through western Redding, burning 1,079 homes. Home after home was burned to wood skeletons along the streets where I once walked our puppy and pushed our girls in strollers. Just outside the subdivision, a woman and her two grandchildren burned to death. Out of sheer luck, our former home, which we had since sold after I changed newspaper jobs, was still standing. Despite the heartbreak and the terror and the loss, my old neighbourhood will rebuild, and the region will be a fire trap again as soon as the chaparral grows back. Yet, if I still lived in that neighbourhood, Id almost certainly want to stay there. Those trails. That fishing. The peace and quiet. I miss them still. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Authorities say theyve arrested a Florida man who threatened in an email to slaughter his former co-workers. A Pinellas County Sheriffs Office news release says 31-year-old Dorian Golej was fired by Raytheon Corp. on March 21 after a company investigation determined he had created a hostile work environment. Investigators say Golej sent several emails to his own attorney early Monday morning expressing a desire to kill his former co-workers. The attorney contacted security at the companys Seminole office, which placed the building on lockdown and called the sheriffs office. Golej was arrested Monday and charged with making threatening communications or threats of mass shooting. Golej was being held on $500,000 bond. Reports didnt include comment from Golej or a representative. SACRAMENTO, Calif. - More than a million high-capacity ammunition magazines flooded into California during a one-week window created when a federal judge temporarily threw out the states ban, gun owners groups estimated Thursday. Reform groups said the projections are self-serving as gun rights organizations try to make the case that magazines holding more than 10 bullets are so common now that a ban is impractical. The magazines arent tracked. But there are plenty of anecdotal indications that the floodgates briefly opened when U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez overturned the states nearly 20-year-old ban late last month. The judge halted sales a week later, but ruled that those who bought the magazines can legally own them while the state appeals his ruling. Everything was all sold out. I basically took whatever I could get, said Chris Puehse, who owns Foothill Ammo in Shingle Springs, east of Sacramento. He fielded dozens of telephone calls while buyers stacked up 20 deep in his one-man store to buy the hundreds of magazines that arrived in two shipments last week. He had just six left by the time Benitez reinstated the ban last Friday. People loved it. It was like we were out of prison and were not treated like bastard stepchildren of the country anymore, he said. Thirty-round magazines for military-style rifles, handgun magazines holding 17 to 20 bullets, all selling for less than $30 each they disappeared, Puehse said. They wanted to grab more than I let them, otherwise they would have been gone even faster than a few hours. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned hours before Benitez again halted sales that California was in danger of becoming the wild, wild West for high-capacity magazines. There are those who are now trying to flood the state of California with what were until this decision illegal high-capacity magazines, the type of magazines that are used in firearms to commit the mass shootings that weve seen throughout the country, Becerra said. Ruger Firearms announced it was releasing its entire inventory. South Carolina-based Palmetto State Armory announced in a Facebook ad that it was prepared to send a whole lot of freedom to our friends in California, but warned of delays due to high demand. The pipeline was open and it was flowing, on all platforms people showing up (in stores), online Im guessing that UPS and FedEx had a field day, said Gun Owners of California president Sam Paredes. It was a frenzy. He said an estimate of a million magazines seems a little bit low. Chuck Michel, an attorney for the National Rifle Association and the California Rifle & Pistol Association, has a photograph of empty racks at a Bass Pro Shops store in Las Vegas that used to hold magazines before Californians flocked to the neighbouring state to stock up. Californias more than 2.5 million gun owners together have nearly 20 million guns, many of which can use the extended magazines. By weeks end, Michel said, you couldnt get one anywhere, because all that inventory had been diverted to California. Thats probably at least a million magazines, probably approaching two to several hundred thousand people. Staff attorneys with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco said theyve seen no evidence to back up the million-magazine estimate, and said gun rights organizations have a vested interest in inflating the number of law-abiding owners. They have a very specific purpose and intent here to try to set up for the court that these are devices that are very commonly used and possessed and therefore should not be banned again, said California legislative affairs director Ari Freilich. It lets them argue that theres no way to un-ring the bell, added litigation director Hannah Shearer. The problem isnt the new owners who will use them legally for target shooting or self-defence, they said: its that some will fall into the hands of criminals or be used by mass shooters. The magazines allow shooters to fire more bullets without stopping to reload. Gun owners organizations and Judge Benitez said thats helpful to ward off multiple home invaders, but opponents said it gives victims less time to escape or tackle a mass shooter as he reloads. Reformers expect the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the ban on sales while reinstating a 2016 law and ballot measure banning possession even by those who own them legally. Opponents are counting on the U.S. Supreme Court to ultimately side with Benitezs ruling that the bans infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Because of that one slip-up, in one week you literally had millions of magazines come into the state that were bought legally, said Puehse, the gun shop owner. These magazines are here to stay. The door to the medicine cabinet was dangling from its hinges and the bathtub was full of blood. Shele Danishefsky Covlin was wrapped in a comforter on the floor when police arrived, the blood still streaking through her long blond hair. Her estranged husband, Roderick Covlin, told police his wife had had a terrible accident, that she slipped and fell in the tub and that his 9-year-old daughter called him screaming early the morning of Dec. 31, 2009, after finding her there. Covlin lived just across the hall in their Manhattan apartment building, having separated from his wife months earlier amid bitter divorce proceedings. The night before Danishefsky died, the acrimony had reached its climax: She had just told Covlin she would be removing him as a beneficiary from her $5 million will. But there in the bathroom, police wouldnt glean any of this from the scene, or very much at all. They didnt dust for fingerprints, or collect DNA samples, or collect any evidence for that matter. Within two days, Danishefsky, 47, would be buried without an autopsy, due to the familys Orthodox Jewish beliefs, the family told NBCs Dateline. Her death certificate said the cause of death was undetermined. Nearly a decade later, however, a jury believed differently. On Wednesday, Covlin was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on second-degree murder charges. Prosecutors said he strangled Danishefsky in the bathroom and then filled the tub with bloody water to make her death appear accidental. He was after the millions of dollars in her will he was at risk of losing the day before she died, they said, and went to sinister lengths seeking to regain custody of their children. After years of investigation, a state Supreme Court jury in Manhattan convicted Covlin, 45, in March in part based on testimony that he had even plotted to kill his parents as part of the scheme to get his children back. At one point, he even tried to frame his daughter for the crime, according to the New York Times and New York Daily News, citing legal filings. Danishefsky suffered at the hands of this defendant for months, and as soon as she sought to sever ties, he murdered her in a brutal and vicious crime, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement when Covlin was convicted. That he delayed justice for Ms. Danishefskys family by lying to them and to law enforcement in a cover-up scheme only serves to underscore the depravity of his actions. Covlins attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said he would appeal, insisting there was no proof Covlin was in the apartment before Danishefsky died, the Times reported. Covlin and Danishefsky had been married for a decade at the time they separated, in April 2009. They met at a bar in New York in 1998 at a party for Jewish singles and fell in love so fast that Danishefskys sister had to talk her down from eloping with him spontaneously, family told Dateline. They married within a matter of months. But it wasnt long before their differences began to erode their relationship. Danishefsky was an ambitious and successful private wealth manager, the breadwinner. Covlin was a struggling stockbroker, who dabbled in martial arts and had an obsession with playing backgammon on the internet. She said, He doesnt get a job. He goes to the gym twice a day, and hes just hanging around the house, Danishefskys sister, Eve Karstaedt, told Dateline. It was very frustrating for her. She said, Its driving me crazy. The couples marriage took a nose-dive on their 10th anniversary, Karstaedt said. Covlin allegedly asked for an open marriage. Danishefsky refused. Instead, they headed for divorce and thats when Covlins wild lies began piling up, as he pursued custody of their two children, 3-year-old Myles and 9-year-old Anna, prosecutors contended. First, in May 2009, Covlin called Danishefskys employer to claim that she was abusing drugs and draining their joint bank account. Her company, UBS Financial Services, investigated. All of it was false, the Manhattan District Attorneys Office said. That July, Covlin took the children to the hospital. He told the New York City Administration for Childrens Services that his wife was sexually abusing their son. Another invention unfolded, prosecutors said. By December 2009, as the divorce was still pending, Danishefsky began carving Covlin out of her life financially. She removed him as a beneficiary of her UBS retirement fund, according to civil court records, and made her two children the sole beneficiaries. On Dec. 30, 2009, prosecutors say, she told Covlin she intended to cut him out of her $5.27 million will. Within 72 hours, she was in the ground. Even Covlins girlfriend and backgammon partner, Debra Oles, remembered thinking the timing was eerily convenient. He told me that his wife had an accident and died, Oles told Dateline. My very first thought was, thats a really weird coincidence in timing, and that really basically solves all his problems. But then I felt guilty thinking that, because he said it was an accident. After initially respecting the religious objection to the autopsy, Danishefskys family soon began to feel uneasy about her death, too. Could she really have torn the medical cabinet door from its hinges as she tried to stop a fall? Why, if Covlin had removed her from the bathtub before calling police, were none of his clothes wet when police arrived? And there was Danishefskys hair. The day before she was found dead, she had gone for a keratin treatment to straighten her hair. The stylist had advised her not to even dampen her hair for three days, he said during Covlins trial, according to footage aired by Dateline. Why, the family wondered, was she even in the tub at all? Youre not even supposed to go to the gym, Karstaedt told Dateline. A few months later, her family decided to exhume Danishefskys body, seeking a formal autopsy. Near the end of it, a New York Police Department detective told Dateline, he looked at us, he showed us the hyoid bone in the neck and that it was broken. The cause of death was neck compression, the medical examiner ruled a homicide. But prosecutors did not indict Covlin until November 2015 as they continued the investigation, relying entirely on circumstantial evidence and interviews with witnesses since police had collected no physical evidence from the scene. As the investigation pushed forward, prosecutors say they uncovered Covlins dark schemes to collect as much of his wifes money as possible and to retrieve his children from his parents, who had taken custody in the aftermath of the killing. In 2013, Covlin devised a plot to kidnap Anna, smuggle her to Mexico and sell her hand in marriage for $10,000, the Times reported. That way, she would be out of her grandparents custody. In June of that year, he even wrote a false confession from Annas email account to another family member apparently seeking to frame his daughter as prosecutors honed in on him, the Times reported. All of these years I have been so incredibly afraid and guilty about the night my mom died, Covlin wrote in the fake email in his daughters voice, according to Dateline. I lied. She didnt just slip. The email, which went on to describe a fight in the bathroom between mother and daughter, was never sent. Nor was it admitted during the trial. Who does that to a child? Karstaedts husband, Marc, told Dateline. Who basically frames a child? Finally, before his arrest, he confided in Oles that he wanted to kill his parents the two people standing in his way of the children and the money, Oles testified in court. He had multiple plots, she claimed. First, he schemed to break into his parents home in the middle of the night, kill them, take the children and then light the home on fire, she said. Then, he considered putting rat poison in their tea for which he would commission the help of Anna, Oles claimed. Oles talked him out of that one too, she said. We were in the car driving and he said to me, you have to help me kill my parents, Oles told Dateline. She refused, adding she feared even if she did hed kill her, too. He said, No, I only want to kill the people who tried to take my children from me, Oles claimed. Covlins parents told Dateline they believed Oless claims of these alleged murder plots were all a farce. All throughout his trial and sentencing, his parents stood behind him, and just before a judge sentenced him to 25 years to life on Wednesday, his children did, too. After all these years, his children told the judge, one in person and one via letter, they still believed their mother slipped in the bathtub. I lost one parent and do not want to lose a second, Myles, who is now 12, told the judge, the Times reported. My mom slipped hit her head, fell unconscious and drowned, just like the Medical Examiner said when he found her, Anna, now 18, wrote in the statement read by her grandmother in court, Inside Edition reported. The judge was unmoved, and disturbed by Covlins lack of remorse. When she gave him a chance to speak, he said, Luckily, my daughter who was there that night knows the truth. Shes the only one who could. OWINGS MILLS, Md. - A private boarding school in Maryland says it has found evidence that five former faculty members sexually assaulted more than 20 students over several decades. The Baltimore Sun reports the McDonogh School in Owings Mills sent families a letter about the findings Tuesday. The letter says the allegations dont involve current faculty or students. It says an investigation was launched in 2016 when a former student from the 1980s told officials he had been sexually assaulted by Alvin J. Levy and Robert E. Creed. Levy was indicted on a sexual abuse charge by a school graduate in 1992 but died before his scheduled court date. Creed pleaded guilty in 1985 to sexual offence and abuse of a minor and has since died. The school notified police and hired a firm to conduct an external investigation, which found Levy and Creed may have assaulted 19 male students over four decades. It also found that three other former faculty members may have assaulted five female students during the 1970s and 80s. The letter did not identify those faculty members, but did say police have been notified. County States Attorney Scott Shellenberger says the victims have been contacted. He says one of the former female students was willing to testify in court. However, Shellenberger said he did not have the evidence required to build a case because the incident occurred in the 1980s, when state law required the encounter to be forced or for the victim to be younger than she was. The investigation also found that some of the allegations were previously reported to school officials who failed to take appropriate action. Head of School David Farace apologized in the letter. The Sun reported that the investigation by New York-based T&M Protection Resources comes after county police confirmed in 2018 an investigation into a separate incident of alleged sexual assault between students in the boys dormitory. The newspaper says county police and the school didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. ___ Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com LAWRENCE, Kan. - The University of Kansas has pulled the fossil of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex from public view at its Natural History Museum after anger erupted when the fossils private owner listed it for sale for $2.95 million. Alan Detrich, who isnt a trained paleontologist, said he originally shared his rare fossil with the museum two years ago because the public ought to get to see it, the Lawrence Journal-World reports . His eBay sales pitch for the fossil initially highlighted the fossils ties to the university, prompting the school to tweet that its not involved in the sale. Detrich said he and his brother unearthed the 68-million-year-old bones from a 4-year-old T. rex in 2013 on property he leased to hunt for fossils near Jordan, Montana. To the naysayers from academia who complained about the universitys link with the for-sale specimen, Detrich says his message is youre welcome. Youre welcome for me to allow my dinosaur to be in the museum and to be able to show the people, he said. People have had the opportunity to actually see the baby T. rex. Leonard Krishtalka, museum director and KU professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said in an internal memo that the intent was to keep the specimen in the museum sphere to be enjoyed by visitors until it was sold to a museum. Krishtalka said the listings references to the university made it appear the university was promoting the sale in violation of a formal contract approved by the universitys legal team. The museum learned this week that Alan Detrich had abruptly listed the specimen for sale on eBay without notifying the museum, Krishtalka said. Besides pulling the display, the museum asked Detrich to remove all references to the university and other misleading language and photos from his eBay listing, the memo said. Detrich, who also is known for making religious art out of dinosaur fossils, has long been a source of frustration to some in the scientific community. They think fossils should be uncovered by people with more training and then donated for scientific study. Detrich, meanwhile, insists fossil hunting is a risky, expensive business. Millionaires arent rich enough to buy these dinosaurs, Detrich said. I dont have a problem with selling to billionaires, because theyve got enough money to protect this fossil and take really good care of it . At some point, all these things end up in museums. ___ Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com Authorities in southern Louisiana on Wednesday arrested a suspect in a spate of fires that have burned three black churches in St. Landry Parish since last month, according to federal prosecutors. A suspect has been identified in connection with the three church burnings in Opelousas, Louisiana, and is in state custody, said U.S. Attorney David C. Joseph in a statement. The U.S. Attorneys Office, ATF, and FBI are working with state and local law enforcement and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the victims and those St. Landry Parish residents affected by these despicable acts. The Louisiana State Fire Marshals Office, which has led the investigation into the blazes, declined to comment on the arrest. Multiple local media outlets in Louisiana have identified the suspect as a 21-year-old man who is the son of a St. Landry Parish deputy. Authorities plan to release more information on Thursday morning. Local leaders praised the arrest for bringing an end to several frightening weeks for residents as hundreds of investigators worked with federal authorities to determine who had ignited the fires. Im very proud of the investigative effort that has lead to this arrest. Im prayerful that we can close this horrific chapter and begin to heal, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., said in a statement sent to KATC. When Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas, Louisiana, caught fire on April 4, consuming the churchs interior, it was the third predominantly black church to burn down in St. Landry Parish in the span of 10 days, setting local residents on edge. Read more: The Latest: Church fire suspects father is sheriffs deputy Why hate crimes are hard to prosecute Editorial | With anti-Semitism and hate crimes on the rise, U.S. voters must check Trumps power On March 26, flames reduced St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre to just a few walls and piles of rubble. And on April 2, a blaze struck the Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas. Authorities still have not determined a motive and have declined to tell residents whether they believe race was a factor in the crimes, according to The Advocate. On Sunday, State Fire Marshal H. Butch Browning told worshippers at Mount Pleasant that about 200 state investigators were working the case alongside officials from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI. There is clearly something happening in this community, Browning said in a statement last week. Thats why its imperative that the citizens of this community be part of our effort to figure out what it is. A fourth fire on March 31 was reported more than 200 miles away at the predominantly white Vivian United Pentecostal Church in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, but authorities have not established a link to the St. Landry incidents. For some, the recent fires recall a dark history of attacks and threats against black churches in the South. During Reconstruction and the civil rights movement, black churches were targeted with fires, bombings and threats. In 2015, a white-supremacist gunman opened fire on a prayer group at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine black people. Nearly 200 years before, Emanuel AMEs predecessor had been burned down in 1822 by Charlestons white leaders, who feared an insurrection by the citys enslaved residents. An African-American man in Mississippi pleaded guilty to arson last month for setting fire to a black church in 2016. He had attempted to disguise the arson as a hate crime. As authorities investigated the St. Landry fires, churches leaders were resilient, though baffled by the attacks. My church has a lot of history, the Rev. Gerald Toussaint of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church told The Daily Advertiser, noting that it was more than 140 years old. I dont understand it. What could make a person do that to a church? Greater Union had served worshippers for more than 100 years, according to Pastor Harry Richard, whose grandfather helped found the church. He left a legacy for me and I was trying to fulfil that to the best of my ability, he told CBS News. Toussaint told ABC News that the church is not that building. The church is the people. If we stay together as a congregation, the church is alive and well, he said. We can rebuild the building as long as we stay together. MINNEAPOLIS - The Latest on the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in the fatal shooting of an unarmed woman who had called 911 to report a possible crime (all times local): 5:25 p.m. The head of the Minneapolis police homicide unit testified that alley lighting was bright enough that he could clearly see the scene where a Minneapolis police officer fatally shot an unarmed woman in 2017. Lt. Richard Zimmerman told a prosecutor that he could see the officers involved in the shooting just like Im looking at you right now. Mohamed Noor is charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor shot Damond as she approached his squad car minutes after calling 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home. Defence attorneys have contended that lighting was poor in the alley where Damond was shot. ___ 1 p.m. The fiance of a woman who was shot by a Minneapolis police officer after she called 911 to report a possible crime cradled his head in his hands as body camera footage of attempts to save her was played at the officers trial. Don Damond declined to watch Thursdays playing of the chaotic footage of the unsuccessful efforts to save Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who was shot minutes after calling 911 to report a possible rape near her home. Justine was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia who had taken her fiances last name ahead of their wedding, set for a month after her 2017 death. The Star Tribune reported that one officers body camera showed Officer Mohamed Noor and his partner taking turns performing CPR before firefighters arrived and took over. Noor is charged with murder and manslaughter. DALLAS - The Latest on the Boeings troubled 737 Max jet (all times local): 2:40 p.m. Boeing has made 96 flights to test a software update for its troubled 737 Max jet, the companys CEO says. Dennis Muilenburg said Thursday that more test flights are planned in the coming weeks as Boeing attempts to convince regulators that the plane is safe. The Max was grounded by regulators around the world last month after a second deadly crash involving the plane, in Ethiopia. In that crash and an October crash in Indonesia, faulty information from a sensor caused anti-stall automation to kick in and push the planes nose lower. Pilots were unable to save the planes. Muilenburg also says Boeing representatives have held meetings in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Singapore and China with pilots and officials from most of the airlines that own Max jets. ____ 2:30 p.m. A senator is introducing a bill in Congress requiring plane makers to provide airlines with all safety equipment now considered optional and to do so without an additional charge. Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts says safety equipment that had not been installed on two Boeing 737 Max jets might have saved them from fatal crashes. He says the equipment might have alerted crews to false readings from sensors implicated in the crashes that killed all 346 aboard. Markey says plane makers shouldnt treat safety features as luxuries that can generate additional fees like premium seats and extra bathrooms. Boeing says its planes are equipped with all critical features necessary for safety. It has said it will provide two features missing in the two crashed planes free of charge. WASHINGTON - The Latest on President Donald Trumps meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in (all times local): 12:55 p.m. President Donald Trump says the U.S. wants to see sanctions against North Korea continue for now. In an Oval Office meeting with the leader of South Korea on Thursday, Trump said he thinks that sanctions being used to pressure Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon) to give up his nuclear weapons program are at a level thats fair. It is South Korean President Moon Jae-ins first meeting with Trump since Trumps unsuccessful summit with Kim in Vietnam in February. Moon has been acting as a go-between to resolve the nuclear standoff. Moon has worked aggressively to foster better relations between the North and the South and doesnt want to see nuclear talks derailed. Trump says the U.S. wants sanctions to remain in place. ___ 12:45 p.m. The leader of South Korea says that since President Donald Trump met Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon) in Vietnam, there has been a marked reduction in military tension with North Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in is meeting with Trump at the White House for the first time since the unsuccessful summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi. Moon said Thursday that South Korea believes that Trump will be able to solve the nuclear standoff through dialogue. Moon says the important task now is to maintain the momentum of dialogue and hold a third summit in the future. Trump says a third summit could happen but thats its step by step. He wouldnt say whether he had talked to Kim since the Hanoi meeting in late February. ___ 12:40 p.m. President Donald Trump says hes going to talk with the president of South Korea about prospects for future meetings to negotiate an end to the nuclear standoff with North Korea. Efforts to get North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon) to give up his nuclear weapons tops the agenda of Trumps meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Trump says that its going to be a productive day of talks and that over time tremendous things will happen with North Korea. Trump also says that he continues to have good relations with Kim and that they had a good meeting in Vietnam although they didnt accomplish what they wanted. A third summit between Trump and Kim has not been announced. The South Korean leader has been shuttling between Washington and Pyongyang (pyuhng-yahng) to keep the nuclear talks on track. ___ 12:15 p.m. President Donald Trump is meeting with the leader of South Korea to discuss a way forward for nuclear talks with North Korea. It is President Moon Jae-ins first meeting with Trump since an unsuccessful nuclear summit with Kim Jong Un (gihm jung oon) in February in Hanoi. And it comes amid uncertainty over whether Kim is considering backing out of negotiations or restarting nuclear and missile tests. The South Korean leader has been shuttling between Washington and Pyongyang (pyuhng-yahng) to keep the nuclear talks on track. The Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that at a party meeting on Wednesday, Kim stressed self-reliance in his country to deal a telling blow to the hostile forces that go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring North Korea to its knees. WASHINGTON - The Latest on Attorney General William Barr, Congress and the Russia probe (all times local): 1:35 p.m. The Senates top Democrat says Attorney General Robert Barr has destroyed the scintilla of credibility he had left with his testimony before Congress this week. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York made the remark to reporters a day after Barr told a Senate committee that he believes spying occurred on Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign. Schumer says Barr was purposely using phrasing employed by conspiracy theorists and the presidents allies on Fox News. Conservatives have accused the FBI of improperly investigating whether Trumps campaign had inappropriate contacts with Russia. Schumer says he and fellow Democrats have little faith Barr will be fair and dispassionate in deciding what material to withhold when he releases a report by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller investigated Russian involvement in the Trump campaign. ___ 1:05 p.m. President Donald Trump says he believes Attorney General William Barr was correct in saying that spying did occur on Trumps 2016 presidential campaign. Trump was asked about Barrs comments during an Oval Office meeting Thursday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Trump says what Barr claimed was absolutely true. Trump says he would go a step further and call it illegal spying, adding there was spying in my campaign and his answer was a very accurate one. Barr suggested to Congress the origins of the Russia investigation may have been mishandled, but later said he wasnt sure there had been improper surveillance. Still, his remarks have given Trump a new avenue to make the assertion that his 2016 campaign was unfairly targeted by the FBI. __ 1 a.m. Attorney General William Barr says he thinks spying did occur against Donald Trumps presidential campaign. His comments before a Senate panel on Wednesday suggest the origins of the Russia investigation may have been mishandled. Barrs remarks aligned him with the president at a time when his independence is under scrutiny. Barr did not say what spying may have taken place, but he seemed to be alluding to a surveillance warrant the FBI obtained on a Trump aide. He later said he wasnt sure there had been improper surveillance but wanted to make sure proper procedures were followed. Barr was testifying for a second day at congressional budget hearings that were dominated by questions about special counsel Robert Muellers Trump-Russia investigation. WASHINGTON - In a story April 11 about President Donald Trump meeting with four World War II veterans, The Associated Press reported an erroneous hometown for Allen Jones, based on inaccurate information provided by the White House. Jones is from Dunbar, Pennsylvania. A corrected version of the story is below: Trump hosts Oval Office celebration for 4 World War II vets President Donald Trump treated 4 World War II veterans to an Oval Office meeting Thursday, fulfilling a birthday wish for 95-year-old Allen Jones and giving three other centenarian veterans a day to remember By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press President Donald Trump treated four World War II veterans to an Oval Office meeting Thursday, fulfilling a birthday wish for 95-year-old Allen Jones and giving three other veterans age 100 and older a day to remember. One of the men, 101-year-old Floyd Wigfield, of Cumberland, Maryland, managed to win a promise from the president for a return flight on Air Force One following this Junes ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. Well work that out, Trump said. Youll like Air Force One. Trump had met Jones at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention last year and Jones, of Dunbar, Pennsylvania, asked to spend his birthday with the president. Trump looked happy to oblige, joking with the men and their families, and asking each one to say a few words. When one of the guests presented Trump with a hat and suggested he tweet about it, the president deadpanned: I dont tweet that much. Sidney Walton, 100, of San Diego, and a medic in the war, told the president he joined the Army to fight Hitler, prompting Trump to reply: That was a good reason. Walton is on what his family called the No Regrets Tour, a personal mission to visit all 50 states and the White House to educate Americans about World War II veterans. Paul Kriner, 103, of Chambersburg, Pa., told the president he participated in 517 days of combat. The president told him he didnt look a day over 90. Kriner and Wigfield are working with the Greatest Generations Foundation, which provides veterans with the chance to memorialize their stories and find closure by returning to visit where they served. Trump described the men as great heroes, great warriors, highly respected. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trumps meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in comes amid uncertainty over whether the leader of North Korea is considering backing out of nuclear negotiations or restarting nuclear and missile tests. Trump, in his first meeting with Moon since the unsuccessful U.S. summit with Kim in Hanoi, said the U.S. wants to keep economic sanctions in place to pressure Kim to denuclearize. But Trump said he retains good relations with Kim and didnt rule out a third summit or taking steps to ease food or other shortages in the repressive nation. We want sanctions to remain in place, Trump said Thursday at the White House. I think that sanctions right now are at a level thats a fair level. Moon, for his part, has called for an easing of sanctions, including those holding back joint economic projects between North and South Korea. But he didnt speak to the sanctions issue as he and Trump spoke with reporters at the start of their talks. Trump said he would favour easing those sanctions at the right time but added: This isnt the right time. He said he was open to discussing smaller steps, such as helping to ease North Koreas humanitarian problems, but that, in general, the U.S. wants sanctions to remain. There are various smaller deals that maybe could happen, Trump said. You could work out step-by-step pieces, but at this moment, were talking about the big deal. The big deal is we have to get rid of the nuclear weapons. Negotiations on Pyongyangs nuclear program appear to be stalled, and there is uncertainty over whether Kim is considering backing out of talks or restarting nuclear and missile tests. The Korean Central News Agency on Thursday said that at a party meeting on Wednesday, Kim stressed self-reliance in his country to deal a telling blow to the hostile forces that go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring North Korea to its knees. Moon said its important to maintain the momentum of dialogue and express a positive outlook to the international community that a third U.S.-North Korea summit will be held. Id like to express my high regard for how you have continued to express your trust towards Chairman Kim, Moon said. And also, you have made sure that North Korea does not deviate from the dialogue track. Moon did not directly address the issue of sanctions. But several North Korea watchers, including Sue Mi Terry, a North Korean expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Asia analyst at the CIA, said Moon was expected to try to persuade Trump perhaps only privately to agree to ease some sanctions to keep the talks alive. While Trump didnt rule out a third summit with Kim following his earlier two meetings with him in Singapore and Hanoi, Victor Cha, a North Korea expert from the Bush administration, wasnt as hopeful. With Trump already campaigning for re-election, Cha said, Its hard for me to think Trump will risk a third summit. Trump walked away from making a deal with Kim at their meeting in late February. Trump said Kim was asking for sanctions relief without wanting to fully dismantle all his nuclear weapons programs. There is ongoing debate over whether harsh sanctions can pressure Kim to denuclearize or will keep him away from the negotiating table. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the administration was fully engaged in efforts to negotiate a resolution to the nuclear standoff. We are going to keep at it, he said. But there have been no public accounts of any progress since the Hanoi summit. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., assessed the denuclearization talks as stuck on first base. Merkley said the North Koreans had continued developing their missile program and were finding ways to circumvent economic sanctions strangling its economy. He cited a U.N. panel of experts that warned on March 5 that there has been a massive increase in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products and coal rendering the latest U.N. sanctions ineffective. A senior administration official said Thursday that the U.S. and the international community had clearly defined the scope of North Koreas weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, have a shared understanding of what final, fully verified denuclearization entails and what meaningful progress toward that goal looks like. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, said the North Korean position, so far, has fallen short of that understanding. North Koreas Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said last month that Kim would soon make clear his post-Hanoi position. She said her country might pull out of the nuclear negotiations with the United States, citing a lack of corresponding steps to some disarmament measures North Korea took last year. She also hinted that Kim was considering whether to continue the talks and his moratorium on nuclear and missile tests. SAN FRANCISCO - Uber is providing a look under the hood of its business in the lead-up to its hotly anticipated debut on the stock market, revealing strong growth but an ongoing struggle to overcome huge losses and repair its reputation. Documents released Thursday offered the most detailed view of the worlds largest ride-hailing service since its inception a decade ago. The massive filing shows Uber has been generating the robust revenue growth that entices investors, but also racked up nearly $8 billion in losses over its 10 years in existence, which mirrors the same trend challenging Lyft, Ubers main rival in the U.S. Ubers revenue totalled $11.3 billion in 2018, a 42% increase from $7.9 billion in 2017, and a giant leap from $495 million in 2014. The company posted a profit of $997 million last year, but that doesnt mean its ride-hailing service suddenly started to make money far from it. The positive result stemmed from a windfall that Uber generated from the sale of its operations in Russia and Southeast Asia. The company said it sustained an operating loss of $3 billion. The San Francisco company also disclosed a legal cloud hanging over its head as government authorities and regulators investigate whether the company broke any laws. Among other things, Uber revealed the U.S. Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into a yearlong coverup of a massive computer break-in during 2016 that heisted personal information belonging to millions of passengers and drivers. The probes are among the many risks that investors must weigh as they mull whether to jump into one of the biggest IPOs in years. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged the self-inflicted wounds that damaged the ride-hailing services reputation while trying to make the case that the company has rehabilitated itself since he took over 18 months ago. He struck his note of contrition and optimism in a letter included in the federal documents. Some of the attributes that made Uber a wildly successful startup a fierce sense of entrepreneurialism, our willingness to take risks that others might not, and that famous Uber hustle led to missteps along the way, Khosrowshahi wrote, closing his letter by assuring he will run Uber with integrity. Reaching profitability has proven to be a challenge for both Uber and Lyft. Paying drivers is a huge expense, and Ubers fierce competition with Lyft for customers has led both companies to offer rides below cost. Drivers for both companies complain about declining earnings, and they can easily switch between platforms, making it difficult for either company to further reduce driver costs and keep fares cheap for passengers. Uber said it plans to give bonuses to qualified drivers and is setting aside an undisclosed portion of its stock for drivers to buy. Its unprofitable history may force Uber to eventually raise its ride-hailing prices unless it can reduce its costs by shifting to driverless cars or expand into other markets and lines of business. But Ubers operating losses declined from $4 billion in 2017 to $3 billion in 2018, indicating it could be heading in the right direction. Theyre showing that theyre capable of controlling their costs, which has been a concern of ride sharing companies in general, said SharesPost analyst Alejandro Ortiz. Thats a sign that will be looked on favourably in the next few weeks. Lyft beat Uber to the stock market last month with an IPO that raised $2.3 billion, but its shares have been backsliding after an early run-up. Lyfts stock currently is hovering around $61, down from its IPO price of $72. The rocky start may have prompted Uber to tamp down its IPO ambitions. The company is expected to try to raise roughly $10 billion and seeks a market value of $90 billion to $100 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Thats below earlier estimates of $120 billion. The investment bankers handling Ubers IPO are expected to reveal a pricing range for Ubers shares later this month. That will come before executives head out on a so-called road show designed to drum up interest in the IPO among institutional investors who will be given the first opportunity to buy the stock before it begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange next month. In the end, Uber is widely expected to be the biggest technology IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group went public in 2014. And its likely to be the largest among U.S. tech companies since Facebook took its bow on Wall Street seven years ago at a time when most people hadnt ever considered using an app on their smartphone to summon a ride from strangers driving their own cars. Uber launched in 2009 as UberCab, a black car service where customers could hail professional drivers with a few taps on a smartphone. It shortened its name to Uber in 2010, distancing itself from the taxicab industry, which has criticized the company for operating under less regulation than the traditional taxi industry. The company operates in 65 countries and has completed 10 billion trips worldwide. Uber is also expanding in other markets such as freight while offering other ways to get around with shared scooters and bikes. Its fast-growing food delivery business, which spans 500 cities globally, doubled its revenue to $757 million in 2018 from $367 million in 2017. But Uber faces challenges that Lyft doesnt because of a series of damaging revelations that sullied its reputation among consumers. The setbacks have included rampant internal sexual harassment and allegations it stole self-driving car technology. The blowback from the problems helped Lyft pick up ground in the U.S. something Uber acknowledged in its filing and led to the ouster of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO in 2017. Now it will be up to Kalanicks successor, Khosrowshahi, to persuade investors that Uber has cleaned up its act and merits a market value higher than Ford Motor and General Motors combined. Kalanick is one of Ubers largest shareholders, owning nearly 9% of the companys stock. Uber has been investing substantially in self-driving vehicles, which could be critical to reducing driver costs and achieving profitability. It launched its first self-driving test vehicle in 2016 and its self-driving car division has more than 1,000 employees, and it has built more than 250 self-driving cars so far. But it suspended testing when one of its self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona last year. The company resumed testing self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh in December. In its federal filing, Uber warned of the fierce competition it faces on that front from rivals such as Tesla and Googles Waymo, who it said could introduce autonomous vehicles earlier than Uber. The company also warned that potential future regulations or increases in insurance costs could impact the autonomous vehicle business. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, owns 5% of Uber, even as it competes with Uber on self-driving technology. Alphabet also owns roughly 5% of Lyfts stock. __ Bussewitz reported from New York. Marcy Gordon contributed from Washington, D.C. MADISON, Wis. - The Wisconsin National Guard received 52 reports of sexual assault between 2013 and 2017, with more than half related to military service, Guard officials said during a roundtable with reporters Thursday. The U.S. Air Force is investigating allegations of sexual assault and harassment within a Wisconsin Air National Guard security unit dating back to 2002. The investigation came at the request of U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin after a master sergeant in the unit, Jay Ellis, told her office that he had learned of six incidents between 2002 and 2016 and high-ranking officers had done little to address them. That probe spurred a request from Gov. Tony Evers and Baldwin last month to the National Guard Bureau in Washington D.C. to review the Wisconsin Guards sexual assault and harassment reporting procedures, investigative process and accountability measures. The Guards sexual assault response co-ordinator, Robert Brania, said Thursday that 20 of the 52 assault reports were restricted, meaning the person who reported the assault requested confidentiality and the identity of all involved remains secret. The Guards leader, Maj. General Donald Dunbar, is notified when such a report is made but isnt told the details. The Guard helps connect the victim with counselling services but no investigation is launched and the allegations arent referred to law enforcement. Confidentiality was not requested in the remaining 32 reports. In those cases, Dunbar was notified and the incidents were referred to civilian law enforcement as well as Guard investigators. Twenty of those 32 reported assaults were connected with the victim or perpetrators military service in some way, Brania said. Guard investigators substantiated 10 of those reports, meaning they felt there was enough evidence to continue down the path toward internal punishment. Nearly 10,000 people serve in the Wisconsin National Guard. The Guard has launched two court-martials for sexual assault since 2013, Brania said. One of those court-martials has concluded and the other is pending. Guard spokesman Capt. Joe Trovato said in an email after the roundtable that the completed court martial resulted in 30 days confinement, a discharge for bad conduct and a demotion from sergeant first class to private. He didnt immediately respond to a request late Thursday afternoon for the names of the soldiers involved in the court-martials and details of their cases. The remaining eight cases have been referred for administrative action that could include demotions, reprimands and discharges, he said. Brania didnt have data from years preceding 2013. Guard spokeswoman Jackie Halverson said the current database was constructed in 2012 after Congress ordered the U.S. Department of Defence to standardize sexual assault reporting across all branches of military service. Halverson declined to comment on the status of the Air Force investigation. She said no one from the National Guard Bureau has contacted the Wisconsin Guard about the review that Evers and Baldwin requested last month. A bureau spokeswoman had no immediate comment when asked if the review had started. The roundtable participants included Trovato, Halverson, Brania, Guard victim advocate Amber Garfoot and Guard attorney David Dziobkowski. In addition to explaining the reporting process, they noted that victims can seek expedited transfers away from perpetrators within the same unit, commanders stress to their soldiers and airmen to comport themselves professionally, sometimes limiting their drinks at dinner or prohibiting any alcohol while travelling for training and how Guard leaders have trained a service dog to comfort victims. We want our numbers to be zero, Halverson said. We want our assaults to be zero. They declined to discuss the details of any specific case. Sexual assaults have plagued the military for years. In 2017 alone, the four branches received 5,864 reports from military members who said they had been sexually assaulted during their service, up 10 per cent from 2016, according to Department of Defence figures. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the last name of the Guards sexual assault response co-ordinator is Brania instead of Barina. ___ Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1 EVERETT, Mass. - Wynn Resorts is proposing Massachusetts regulators require the company ban its founder from its resorts as a condition of keeping its state casino license. The company also suggests the Massachusetts Gaming Commission impose other conditions to further distance the company from its namesake, such as prohibiting company executives from having social contact with Steve Wynn. Its not clear why Wynn Resorts isnt pursuing the proposed steps on its own. Company spokespeople didnt comment Thursday. The commission is considering the companys fate after its investigators found executives for years concealed allegations of sexual misconduct against Steve Wynn. Steve Wynn has denied the allegations but resigned as CEO. His lawyers didnt comment on the proposals. The company owns casinos in Nevada and Macau and hopes to open Encore Boston Harbor in June. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada took an important step toward making our health system more sustainable and understandable. The court refused to grant an appeal to the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and two other doctors groups who asked the court to keep the identity of Ontarios top 100 high billing doctors secret. As a result of this ruling, the Ontario Ministry of Health must follow the provincial privacy commissioners direction and release the names of these 100 doctors who bill up to $6 million a year. Although the OMA asked the Supreme Court to keep the identities of these doctors private, most doctors like me probably think that there are questions that need to be answered about how a single physician can generate so much billing? First of all, these high billings must all be submitted by a single doctor. Although doctors can submit their billings as a group, the doctors personal OHIP number is on every bill for every service they submit to OHIP. So, these high billings have all been submitted by single physicians who must have rendered the services personally and must have had a direct encounter with the patient. Docs know that the highest paid specialty in Ontario is ophthalmology and the average Ontario ophthalmologist billed OHIP about $750,000 in 2016. An individual billing $6 million would be billing as much as eight ophthalmologists. The first question is of course, How does he or she do accomplish this amount of work? We also know from the auditor general of Ontarios 2016 report that nine specialists worked more than 360 days in 2015-16 and that six worked 366 days (2016 was a leap year). Did all the high-billing doctors work that kind of schedule year after year? With prolonged wait times to see some specialists we do not want fewer patients seen. But we need to worry about professional wellness for physicians working this hard. Where were these doctors working? Were they in a rural community where they are the only physicians providing a life-saving service? If so, they deserve our thanks for caring for their communities while putting themselves at risk and the ministry needs to focus on recruiting physicians to help serve their communities. What is the gender balance of these high billing doctors? Dr. Boris Kralj has shown that male primary care doctors and specialists bill substantially more than women with the same qualifications. Are men overrepresented in this group of high billing physicians? Since new entrants to practice in Ontario are now balanced with respect to gender, it is important for human resource planning to know whether extremely hard-working doctors are more likely to be men. Of course, we all recognize that these high rates of billings do not represent take home pay and that there must be very high expenses to bill multi-millions year after year. However, physicians, like other small businesses, have fixed expenses (rent, equipment, cleaning, licensing fees, insurance) and variable expenses (mainly staff). Fixed expenses would generally stay fairly level as billings go from $700,000 to $6 million. We also know that the auditor general has said that the Ministry does not follow up on many cases of possible inappropriate billings by physicians. The ministry is hampered in that review of submitted billings must be done one patient at a time with the ministry requesting supporting records for submission of each bill. The ministry cannot visit a doctors office and review a number of charts at once. OHIP is essentially an honour system and doctors are honourable professionals. However, when you learn that a single doctor is billing as much as eight or nine hard working colleagues, the question needs to be asked, How does he or she do it? Transparency with respect to expenditure of public funds is an important principle. OHIP billings comprise 10 per cent of all provincial expenditures. Ensuring that taxpayers are getting good value for their money is an essential part of making our publicly funded system sustainable for the future. By making OHIP submissions more transparent and their value more understandable, the Supreme Court and The Star are doing a service for the public. Thousands join rally at Queens Park over schools, April 7 My family and I were at Saturdays rally at Queens Park not because we are puppets of union organizers as suggested by the Minister of Education, Lisa Thompson, and the premier. We were there because we care deeply about education. Our children are growing up in extremely complex times, facing technological, economic, political and environmental challenges that are unprecedented challenges that our generation has failed to manage competently and the Ontario government is cutting education. Our children will be forced to either help solve complex global problems or suffer the consequences of failing to meet the challenges. The government is pulling the rug out from underneath their feet. What is at stake? Investing in education is about building strong communities and a successful nation, one that can manage change with competence and integrity. Look at what happens in countries that lack strong social supports like public education look at Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Sudan, to name just a few. Poverty and violence goes hand in hand with a population that is uneducated. Couldnt happen here? Try talking to a family of residential school survivors or Indigenous students today who face violence when they have to leave home to go to high school in Thunder Bay. Come talk to the families in my downtown Toronto community who are refugees, whose children are absent from school for half the year. Talk to the families of children with special needs, children who are frustrated to the point of acting out because they lack adequate support in school. Too often the choice is to quit school because support for a positive education experience is lacking. The cycle of poverty continues. When the government cuts education resources, real people in Ontario suffer real poverty and violence. Meanwhile, we make very little progress in tackling other important and challenging issues. I am there in my kids' school regularly, and it is plain to see that teachers and students need more, not less. That is why I was at Saturdays rally and I will continue to support teachers as they fight for our children and our future. Erika Westman, Toronto Read more about: Nova Scotias presumed-consent bill for organ donation poised to become law, Online, April 9 April 2 marked the introduction of the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act that will make Nova Scotia the first jurisdiction in North America where presumed consent for organ donation will become the norm. More than 1,500 Ontarians are currently on the waiting list for a life-saving organ transplant. As per the Trillium Gift of Life network, while more than 85 per cent of Ontarians are in favour of organ donation, less than one in three Ontarians have consented for donation. One organ donor can save up to eight lives and enhance up to 75 lives through tissue donation. The number of overall organ donors in Ontario was 1,236 in 2018, relatively stable from 1,286 in 2017. Nova Scotias bill represents a game-changer where the onus will be to opt out if they wish to. It joins the ranks of Belgium, Spain and several others in taking a step forward, pushing the envelope on a dialogue that has been ongoing for close to 15 years. Ontario should be next. Where organ and tissue transplants can save so many lives, presumed consent should be the norm, not the exception. We owe this to our families, our communities, our health care systems and ourselves. Dr. Arnav Agarwal, Toronto Saving lives by opting out, Editorial, April 10 Kudos to the Star for your editorial on organ donation! Opting out is the only way to save more lives. My life was saved 111/2 years ago because of a heart transplant. Opting out policies will pave the way for many more Canadians to receive the Gift of Life. Another year, another transit map. Bigger than ever. Faster than ever. Best ever if it ever comes to pass. On paper, theres nothing especially wrong with the ambitious $28.5 billion transit plan Premier Doug Ford sketched out Wednesday. Provided everything goes right not just the money but the technology. Which raises the $28.5 billion question: Show us the money. Ford is cheerfully taking credit for announcing the total price tag, but without finding the full funding. Its the Ford formula: I control, you bankroll. With a straight face, the premier laid out a vision that assumes all will see eye to eye with him as he spends other peoples money while putting up only $11.2 billion from the provincial purse. Ford has a habit of ripping up previous plans. Now, the premier promises to make his own blueprint work like clockwork. Reading from a TelePrompTer at a campaign-style event on the eve of todays provincial budget, he tore up the old transit map. And rewrote the script: A Downtown Relief Line? The province will build it at twice the length, in less time, and for less money than the citys best-laid plans details and subway stops to come. A Scarborough subway? The premier is going back in time to an earlier design based on three stations. The devil is in the details, but the premier declared himself to be on the side of the angels by giving a shout-out to his late brother Rob. The ex-mayors vision, which was voted down by fellow councillors years ago, is destined to be reborn: This one is close to my heart my brother Rob and I have been the champions for transit in Scarborough since our time at city hall, the premier proclaimed. This ones for you, Rob. Those were the days when the Ford brothers turned a fully-funded citywide LRT plan upside down because they wanted subways, subways, subways. Now, the premier who is sentimental over a Scarborough extension is embracing a lighter rail concept for the downtown line. We are watching a remarkable role reversal that puts big brother Doug in the drivers seat at Queens Park to finish what the Fords started at city hall before it all went off track. More than a role reversal, its yet another change in direction and not everyone is standing with him on the platform. Mayor John Tory pointedly declined an invitation to appear alongside Ford at Wednesdays announcement, because Queens Park had failed to fully brief the city on its latest plans. The premier called him as a courtesy the night before, but kept the mayor in the dark on the details. If the province and the city cant break down silos, how will they break ground? And if two Tories cant co-operate the mayor, lest we forget, is a past leader of the PC party that Ford now helms how will Queens Park collaborate with a Liberal government in Ottawa to secure needed funding? Ford breezily promised to make up any shortfall if they dont pay up funding if necessary, but not necessarily funding. Beyond monetary matters, however, there is also the mystery of technology. The province keeps talking up new light rail techniques for the (driverless) Downtown Relief Line that will leapfrog current plans, but is in no hurry to reveal how. Its a peculiar way to foster collaboration. Surely weve learned after years of Ford-style disruption that subway construction isnt just about substance but process. When youre tunnelling across a city, you cant endlessly backtrack. And when youve remade city council in your own image Ford blew up city hall last summer by cutting it in half in midcampaign it behooves you to heed the new councillors. Not bulldoze them aside. As part of his restructuring, Ford wants to upload the TTCs subway lines to the province which Ive long argued for. Compared to the city, Queens Park has a stronger balance sheet, the ability to borrow for capital costs, and a broader regional outlook. Be careful what you wish for. While the province is well-placed, this premier seems ill-suited. Queens Park has a good map but the wrong man. Torontonians have seen transit maps come and go. They know only too well that subway openings always fall behind schedule. Sticking to his script, Ford is vowing to keep transit on track. My way or the highway. Subway riders will surely have confidence in the new driverless technology for a Downtown Relief Line. But will they have faith in the premier sitting in the drivers seat? Read more about: The Halton public school board is warning that classes could balloon to 46 students as the Ford government cuts the number of high school teachers over the next four years. In a letter to the education minister, the 905-area board notes Lisa Thompson herself has said the ideal class size lies between 26 and 28 students. However, to go from the current average of 22 up to the planned 28, specialized courses with lower enrolment or smaller classes with students who have high needs that have a 10-to-20-student class size will mean that other courses have very high class sizes of 36 to 46 students, the letter says. The government announced last month that class sizes for teens will increase from the current levels as teachers who leave or retire arent replaced. But because those are averages, actual class sizes will end up much higher and 36 to 46, while extreme, is not out of the realm of possibility, said Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association. Halton District School Board chair Andrea Grebenc said the bigger classes will likely be core credits such as math, English, history and geography all those required courses that dont need machinery or anything like that. Read more: 'How is cutting funding to education going to help us?' North York students on why they're standing up to Ford Ontario to scrap seniority-based hiring for teachers, education minister says Teachers, students rally at Queens Park to protest proposed education cuts The issue with the tech courses is that the province is pushing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and skilled trades, but yet they are saying class sizes have to be higher but we cant offer our skilled trades at those class sizes. Its too dangerous, she told the Star. Halton Region encompasses Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills. Thompson was grilled on board concerns in the legislature by NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who called the Progressive Conservative changes bad education policy, and noted Halton may have to scrap classes with low enrolment, even if they are popular among teens. When it comes to school boards across the province, we want to work with our education partners, Thompson replied, adding the ministry is consulting until the end of May. Have your say Thompson also said that even with the changes we announced, (that) were looking at in our plan, were still one of the lowest class sizes across Canada. The minister has said no teachers will be laid off as a result of the larger class sizes, and boards will be given transitional funding over the next four years to manage attrition. Premier Doug Ford has also promised that the government will allocate more money in the budget for education in the coming school year than is currently being spent. The government is keeping class sizes the same in the primary years, but increasing them by an average of one student from grades 4 to 8. In total, it has estimated a total loss of almost 3,500 elementary and secondary teaching positions, though unions and advocacy groups have calculated as many as 10,000 could be phased out. If school boards are going to protect any smaller programs, as they must for special needs students, for example, some classes will absolutely grow to unmanageable sizes, such as the Halton board has indicated, said Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. The government is creating an environment where some students simply will not get the individual attention and supports they need to succeed. Meanwhile, the Toronto District School Board issued a report late Wednesday with preliminary budget figures that show a $28.7 million reduction in funding from the provincial government for this fall, on top of an existing shortfall of $25.7 million. Thats $54.4 million in cuts it will need to find for the next school year. The TDSB notes it has contractual obligations to keep intermediate elementary classes at an average of 23.24 students per teacher, not the 24.5 the government wants and says it is not the only board facing this issue. That alone adds $9.6 million to the boards budget woes. We continue to work with (the education ministry) to help them understand this situation and to advocate for funding to deal with the shortfall, since the government also expects us to follow our collective agreements, the report states. The TDSB also mentions the other significant and far-reaching challenges of reducing high school teaching staff, including growing class sizes, and negative impacts on students and calls its estimated loss of 800 educators an order of magnitude that is unprecedented. Other boards have already written to the province with their concerns over the changes, including recent correspondence from the Durham District School Board that says course option will diminish drastically especially in the area of the arts, trades and specialty subjects. Grebenc said in Halton shes heard a lot of concerns from families ... definitely its the class size, and the four (mandatory) online courses for teens. My big point is the fact where is the evidence-based research that supports these changes, asked Grebenc, who is also an instructor at McMaster University. While science and math are important, so are courses like the arts which are under threat, she added. And with fewer teachers, fewer extracurricular activities will also be a reality, she warned. I have a science degree, an honours bachelor of science, but what helped me through high school I was in choir, in band and on the stage in our drama productions every year ... that kept me well. The arts also lead to jobs, just as science and math do, she said. I teach coding at McMaster, she added. I know the value of coding but coding is not all about math, either. Its problem solving and other skills. Ontario school boards have been urging the ministry to put its education revamp on hold, and hold proper consultations with them and other stakeholders. Durham chair Michael Barrett also wrote to the minister, saying the changes will have a significant negative impact on students. Our smaller, rural and inner-city schools are significantly impacted (eg. the physics or math teacher retires and you cannot replace them), he wrote to Thompson on behalf of his board. With limited course options, such as the trades, this puts students with special needs who often take these courses at risk of not obtaining enough credits for graduation. Abraham said at some point, boards will just have to drop smaller classes to avoid mega-sized ones. But a class of 36 students or more is not outside the realm of possibility, if you take it as far as you need to take it to support those small classes. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close 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. Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia. Millions more are reluctant to invite the devices and their powerful microphones into their homes out of concern that someone might be listening. Sometimes, someone is. Amazon.com employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers. The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners' homes and offices. The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa's understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands. The Alexa voice review process, described by seven people who have worked on the program, highlights the often-overlooked human role in training software algorithms. In marketing materials Amazon says Alexa "lives in the cloud and is always getting smarter." But like many software tools built to learn from experience, humans are doing some of the teaching. The team comprises a mix of contractors and full-time Amazon employees who work in outposts from Boston to Costa Rica, India and Romania, according to the people, who signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from speaking publicly about the program. They work nine hours a day, with each reviewer parsing as many as 1,000 audio clips per shift, according to two workers based at Amazon's Bucharest office, which takes up the top three floors of the Globalworth building in the Romanian capital's up-and-coming Pipera district. The modern facility stands out amid the crumbling infrastructure and bears no exterior sign advertising Amazon's presence. The work is mostly mundane. One worker in Boston said he mined accumulated voice data for specific utterances such as "Taylor Swift" and annotated them to indicate the searcher meant the musical artist. Occasionally the listeners pick up things Echo owners likely would rather stay private: a woman singing badly off key in the shower, say, or a child screaming for help. The teams use internal chat rooms to share files when they need help parsing a muddled word-or come across an amusing recording. Sometimes they hear recordings they find upsetting, or possibly criminal. Two of the workers said they picked up what they believe was a sexual assault. When something like that happens, they may share the experience in the internal chat room as a way of relieving stress. Amazon says it has procedures in place for workers to follow when they hear something distressing, but two Romania-based employees said that, after requesting guidance for such cases, they were told it wasn't Amazon's job to interfere. "We take the security and privacy of our customers' personal information seriously," an Amazon spokesman said in an emailed statement. "We only annotate an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings in order [to] improve the customer experience. For example, this information helps us train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand your requests, and ensure the service works well for everyone. "We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system. Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow. All information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption and audits of our control environment to protect it." Amazon, in its marketing and privacy policy materials, doesn't explicitly say humans are listening to recordings of some conversations picked up by Alexa. "We use your requests to Alexa to train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems," the company says in a list of frequently asked questions. In Alexa's privacy settings, Amazon gives users the option of disabling the use of their voice recordings for the development of new features. The company says people who opt out of that program might still have their recordings analyzed by hand over the regular course of the review process. A screenshot reviewed by Bloomberg shows that the recordings sent to the Alexa reviewers don't provide a user's full name and address but are associated with an account number, as well as the user's first name and the device's serial number. The Intercept reported earlier this year that employees of Amazon-owned Ring manually identify vehicles and people in videos captured by the company's doorbell cameras, an effort to better train the software to do that work itself. "You don't necessarily think of another human listening to what you're telling your smart speaker in the intimacy of your home," said Florian Schaub, a professor at the University of Michigan who has researched privacy issues related to smart speakers. "I think we've been conditioned to the [assumption] that these machines are just doing magic machine learning. But the fact is there is still manual processing involved." "Whether that's a privacy concern or not depends on how cautious Amazon and other companies are in what type of information they have manually annotated, and how they present that information to someone," he added. When the Echo debuted in 2014, Amazon's cylindrical smart speaker quickly popularized the use of voice software in the home. Before long, Alphabet launched its own version, called Google Home, followed by Apple's HomePod. Various companies also sell their own devices in China. Globally, consumers bought 78 million smart speakers last year, according to researcher Canalys. Millions more use voice software to interact with digital assistants on their smartphones. Alexa software is designed to continuously record snatches of audio, listening for a wake word. That's "Alexa" by default, but people can change it to "Echo" or "computer." When the wake word is detected, the light ring at the top of the Echo turns blue, indicating the device is recording and beaming a command to Amazon servers. Most modern speech-recognition systems rely on neural networks patterned on the human brain. The software learns as it goes, by spotting patterns amid vast amounts of data. The algorithms powering the Echo and other smart speakers use models of probability to make educated guesses. If someone asks Alexa if there's a Greek place nearby, the algorithms know the user is probably looking for a restaurant, not a church or community center. But sometimes Alexa gets it wrong-especially when grappling with new slang, regional colloquialisms or languages other than English. In French, avec sa, "with his" or "with her," can confuse the software into thinking someone is using the Alexa wake word. Hecho, Spanish for a fact or deed, is sometimes misinterpreted as Echo. And so on. That's why Amazon recruited human helpers to fill in the gaps missed by the algorithms. Apple's Siri also has human helpers, who work to gauge whether the digital assistant's interpretation of requests lines up with what the person said. The recordings they review lack personally identifiable information and are stored for six months tied to a random identifier, according to an Apple security white paper. After that, the data is stripped of its random identification information but may be stored for longer periods to improve Siri's voice recognition. At Google, some reviewers can access some audio snippets from its Assistant to help train and improve the product, but it's not associated with any personally identifiable information and the audio is distorted, the company says. A recent Amazon job posting, seeking a quality assurance manager for Alexa Data Services in Bucharest, describes the role humans play: "Every day she [Alexa] listens to thousands of people talking to her about different topics and different languages, and she needs our help to make sense of it all." The want ad continues: "This is big data handling like you've never seen it. We're creating, labeling, curating and analyzing vast quantities of speech on a daily basis." Amazon's review process for speech data begins when Alexa pulls a random, small sampling of customer voice recordings and sends the audio files to the far-flung employees and contractors, according to a person familiar with the program's design. Some Alexa reviewers are tasked with transcribing users' commands, comparing the recordings to Alexa's automated transcript, say, or annotating the interaction between user and machine. What did the person ask? Did Alexa provide an effective response? Others note everything the speaker picks up, including background conversations-even when children are speaking. Sometimes listeners hear users discussing private details such as names or bank details; in such cases, they're supposed to tick a dialog box denoting "critical data." They then move on to the next audio file. According to Amazon's website, no audio is stored unless Echo detects the wake word or is activated by pressing a button. But sometimes Alexa appears to begin recording without any prompt at all, and the audio files start with a blaring television or unintelligible noise. Whether or not the activation is mistaken, the reviewers are required to transcribe it. One of the people said the auditors each transcribe as many as 100 recordings a day when Alexa receives no wake command or is triggered by accident. In homes around the world, Echo owners frequently speculate about who might be listening, according to two of the reviewers. "Do you work for the NSA?" they ask. "Alexa, is someone else listening to us?" - - - Bloomberg's Gerrit De Vynck, Mark Gurman and Irina Vilcu contributed. JetBlue Airways Corp. rallied after saying it would join the hyper-competitive market for business travelers flying between the U.S. and Europe, using Airbus jets with an expanded version of its premium cabin. Starting in 2021, JetBlue will make multiple daily flights from its hubs at New York's John F. Kennedy and Boston Logan to an unspecified airport in London, the carrier told employees in New York. The Wednesday evening announcement, repeated Thursday in London, capped months of vows from Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes that JetBlue could bring new travelers to the market by undercutting "obscene" business-class fares and offering its posh Mint service. The trans-Atlantic jump is a gamble for JetBlue, which carved out a domestic business starting in 2000 by offering plush leather seats and innovative seat-back video screens at discount fares. The carrier will immediately face competitive threats from entrenched global airline alliances and from struggling low-cost operators, while also needing to secure space at crowded airports. "The Atlantic is not just any international market," said Samuel Engel, head of the aviation group at consultant ICF. "The trans-Atlantic is a graveyard for airlines. JetBlue is better positioned to succeed than almost any other airline that has grown into it." The shares rose 2.4% to $17.33 at 10:22 a.m. in New York following a rally Wednesday in anticipation of the announcement. That brought the two-day gain to 6.1%, on pace for the most since January 2018. JetBlue has been deliberating making trans-Atlantic flights since at least 2016, when it ordered A321 single-aisle planes with the right to convert some of the aircraft to a version with extra fuel tanks for longer routes. For London service, it will switch 13 existing orders to the A321LR, which can fly 4,000 nautical miles -- sufficient to hop from the U.S. Northeast to Western Europe -- and can seat 206 passengers. That's similar to a Boeing 757-200. "London is the largest metro area JetBlue doesn't yet serve from both Boston and New York, and we could not be more thrilled to be changing that in the years ahead," said Joanna Geraghty, the carrier's president and chief operating officer. "The fares being charged today by airlines on these routes, specifically on the premium end, are enough to make you blush." The airline might fly to Paris and Amsterdam down the line, Hayes said Thursday. JetBlue, which has 85 A321s on order, retains the right to shift more to the long-range option and said the switch won't affect its external financial commitments or capital-spending plans. The carrier has created an internal team to begin securing U.S. regulatory approval for extended flights over water. JetBlue's entry would add to the rise of narrow-body planes plying the Atlantic. Norwegian Air Shuttle already was operating flights with the Boeing 737 Max before that plane was grounded following two crashes of the model within five months. The airline has had to scrap some flights and switch others to bigger aircraft, increasing its costs. Discount carrier Wow Air, which used single-aisle planes to connect European cities to the U.S. with a stop in Iceland, shut down last month after failing to secure rescue funding. "JetBlue will have to contend with greater seasonality, reduced efficiency and higher cost -- albeit with higher competing fares," Savanthi Syth, a Raymond James Financial analyst, said in a note Thursday. "While a logical move longer term, we believe JetBlue's entrance into the trans-Atlantic could be an overhang on investor sentiment." The tougher challenge for JetBlue is likely to come from the biggest carriers that for years have dominated traffic across the North Atlantic. American Airlines and British Airways form one alliance, while Delta and Air France-KLM are joined in another and a third includes United Continental Holdings and Deutsche Lufthansa. The incumbents hold the majority of slots, or rights to take off and land. "There's a difference between going in as a little water skimmer taking off some of the leisure traffic at the bottom," Engel said. "A Wow in that market is annoying but not an existential threat. A JetBlue serving it and going after core business traffic is a real threat to the established players and they are going to fight hard." JetBlue has been calling on regulators in the U.S., U.K. and European Union to force airlines that are members of global alliances to give up some valuable flight slots at congested airports like Kennedy and London's Heathrow airport. "The big airlines will tell you that competition has never been more robust, but the smaller airlines have never found it harder to get access," Geraghty said. The competition is also tough at less trafficked hubs. Delta last week announced it will begin flights to Boston and New York from London's Gatwick airport with trans-Atlantic partner Virgin Atlantic starting in 2020. Delta is a major competitor to JetBlue in both of those northeastern U.S. cities. In addition to its U.S. routes, JetBlue has flights to nearly two dozen countries in the Caribbean, Mexico and the northern part of South America. - - - Bloomberg's Benjamin Katz, Christopher Jasper, Julie Johnsson, Richard Clough and Lucca de Paoli contributed. Dateline - Liberated Paris: The Hotel Scribe and the Invasion of the Press By Ronald Weber Rowman & Littlefield. 240 pp. $27.95 --- Keen to attach a coveted "Liberated Paris -" dateline to their dispatches, five Canadian newsmen threaded jeeps through French crowds "mad with happiness" on Aug. 24, 1944. Their destination: the fashionable (and aptly named) Hotel Scribe, the newest Allied press camp on the march from Normandy to Berlin. Though Nazi propaganda officers had abandoned the hotel only earlier in the day, the journalists succeeded in broadcasting word of the city's impending deliverance from the rooftop that night. As recounted in historian Ronald Weber's immersive "Dateline - Liberated Paris," the Canadian reporters were the vanguard of an offbeat invasion force: By two months after D-Day, more than 900 Allied scribes had been accredited to cover the European theater. Some 200 of them infested the Scribe by sundown on Paris' Liberation Day, Aug. 25. Soon the hotel lobby would be converted into a press room filled with telegraph machines and typewriters, their rapid-fire keystrokes mimicking the "machine-gun barrage" of champagne corks from the bar below. Within a month, recalled U.S. Army Lt. Col. Barney Oldfield, 250 "public-relations officers" (military speak for censors) had taken up blue pencils inside the hotel, "pawing over an average of more than 3,000,000 words ... 35,000 still pictures, and 100,000 feet of movie film every seven days." Lingering gunfire understandably overheated some of those words. On Aug. 26, as bullets from Wehrmacht die-hards stippled the courtyard walls of the Ritz (its bar "liberated" by a grenade-festooned Ernest Hemingway the day before), the occupant of a "sinfully luxurious suite" upstairs was painting the City of Light in purple prose: "Paris today is Betty Grable on a bicycle and Billy the Kid on a bender," wrote Ralph Allen, reporting for Toronto's Globe and Mail. "Paris is the Mona Lisa in a jeep and Francois Villon behind a Sten gun. ... Paris today was partly itself at its best, partly Deadwood Gulch at its worst and partly Strauss' Vienna at its most improbable." One woman who kissed him in the street, Allen reported, had laughed off the gunfire with patriotic sang-froid: "Why let a little shooting spoil a day like this?" Other correspondents braved much more than the occasional embrace to get the story. They rode in open vehicles down narrow streets where sniper fire still rang out. Three American newsmen were captured and imprisoned in Germany until war's end. Reuters correspondent William Stringer - that nominative determinism again - was killed by enemy fire on Aug. 17. Two days later, Thomas Treanor of the Los Angeles Times died when an American tank hit his jeep near Chartres. Earlier in the year, Treanor had returned stateside from the Italian front to complete "One Damn Thing After Another: The Adventures of an Innocent Man Trapped Between Public Relations and the Axis." The book's subtitle captures the situation faced by every correspondent and photographer profiled in "Dateline" - notably Walter Cronkite, Iris Carpenter, Ernie Pyle, Virginia Cowles, Howard K. Smith, Robert Capa, Lee Miller, George Orwell, Martha Gellhorn (Hemingway's third wife) and Mary Welsh (informed by Papa that she would inevitably be his fourth). Gellhorn's work, recalled British censor Harold Acton, was "the best written and most vivid of the articles submitted to me." Reporters looked on helplessly as Acton and his fellow "pedantic spoilsports" sanitized stories for home-front consumption. No accounts of GIs fraternizing with German citizens, thank you. And not a whisper, please, about French youths counterfeiting Resistance armbands to loot and intimidate. Given the various battlefront hazards, it's a marvel any dispatch got through. Typescript had to be ferried to the nearest wireless transmission facility, so it routinely went MIA or got KIA. Such was the twin fate of a surefire front-page story written by Army Sgt. Andy Rooney 34 years before he surfaced as the eyebrow-waggling scold of "60 Minutes" on CBS. Having entered Paris with French Gen. Philippe Leclerc's men in advance of rival correspondents accompanying American troops, Rooney banged out what he witnessed - including gruesome reprisals against German stragglers and French "collabos" - and sent the story off to Stars and Stripes. But the pages disappeared from the French information center to which Rooney entrusted them, and engine trouble befell the American pilot who attempted to deliver them to rear headquarters. Female correspondents risked losing their press credentials - or being banished from the war zone - if they ventured closer to the fighting than a field hospital. "The public relations boys thought we gals ought to be happy [at the Scribe]," wrote Virginia Irwin of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "But I was itching to see what our Joes were doing." Irwin went AWOL to scratch that itch, shadowing American troops to within mortar range of the front lines. "That's about a mile closer than any other woman correspondent has been," Irwin crowed, "or I'll eat my correspondent's beret dry without any butter." Short of food, cigarettes, coal and public transport, Paris in the post-liberation period lacked "virtually everything needed for everyday life," Weber writes. "Yet what it singularly had was itself, the magnificent and largely undamaged city that appealed as much as ever to the Western mind and imagination." No wonder newshawks hunkered down in their "silver fox holes" at the Scribe. The combat "left Paris behind" by year's end, Col. Oldfield observed, "but the war correspondents hadn't the heart to do likewise." --- Fallow, a former resident of France, was a copy editor on the "World War II" series from Time-Life Books. "Parenting is a big responsibility," everyone said, eyeing my growing belly and the baby already on my hip. "You think it's hard with one? Two is a hundred times more work! You better be sure you can handle it." While I loved caring for my girls, I took that part about it being my responsibility a little too seriously. I had a hard time letting anyone help - including, sometimes, my husband. Eventually, people stopped offering. Even when Freyja, our younger child, was diagnosed with a severe neurological disorder and I knew I was in way over my head, this was how I operated: I got it. No thanks. We're okay! From time to time I wondered how other families had aunties who took the kids for weekends, grandparents who took the whole family on vacation, or friends who pitched in here and there. We had none of that. It took me years to realize that this was because of the space I put between us and everyone we knew. Then, when Freyja was about 6, I referred her to Make-A-Wish, and everything changed. I no longer had a choice; I had to let people in. For so long I'd acted so stoic that people did not realize how serious our daughter's disability was. I write about it, but I don't talk about it much, and Freyja is so full of life that it's hard to believe her condition is terminal. I don't think people had any idea what we were dealing with until I posted something on social media about her qualifying for Make-A-Wish. She chose to go to Disney World to meet the princesses. A typical Disney vacation is beyond our financial means, but Make-A-Wish made it possible. We decided to extend the trip by a few days so that Freyja could rest when she needed to and we'd still have plenty of time to see everything. But I worried about the cost of that extra time. Someone started a GoFundMe page to cover our expenses, but I hated the idea of asking people for money. I hated that people might think I was begging, that they might make assumptions about me, that they would think I was taking advantage of them. Enough friends told me to shut up and just let people help my daughter make her wish come true that I swallowed my pride and shared the link. Before long, friends, colleagues, family members and a handful of generous anonymous strangers had raised $5,000. I was uncomfortable, but at the same time my heart was warmed by how many people loved my daughter and wanted to help her have the time of her life. There were other acts of generosity. A former classmate I hadn't seen in nearly a decade reached out to offer us her home and car for the days Make-A-Wish did not cover. Another old friend whom I hadn't spoken to in more than 20 years messaged me after noticing how much my older daughter loved Harry Potter. Did I know that he worked at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter? He gave us free tickets and devoted an entire day to being our guide. I got a text from another person whose good friend worked somewhere she thought we'd really love to visit; soon we had a private, accessible tour lined up. And all of this happened before we even left the house. Still, the idea of traveling 1,300 miles made me feel sick. How would we manage kids, a walker, a wheelchair and luggage? Would everything fit in the cab? How much would it cost to check all of that baggage? I had visions of us surrounded by bags and medical equipment, sweaty and stressed, trying to make our connecting flights while our kids roamed through the airport terminals. I nearly backed out. Disney vacations were for other families, not for us. Imagine my surprise when the car that pulled up to take us to the airport was a stretch limousine. Everything fit, and I breathed easier, not because of the luxury, but because it seemed like we just might pull this off. They told us to wear our Make-A-Wish buttons. On travel days, my daughter wore a bright blue T-shirt with the Make-A-Wish logo. I learned quickly: That big blue logo is a sign that says "Help me, my child is dying." I hated it. I felt so exposed, so vulnerable. That same feeling I'd had during the fundraiser came back: Please don't pity me. I got this. She's fine. We're all fine. But when you wear that button, you can't say "No thanks" to everyone who wants to help, because almost everyone wants to help. Reluctantly, I let them. And then something happened that I didn't expect. It wasn't the gate agent who upgraded our seats - or the Disney cast members who gifted us food, stuffed animals and more - who finally helped me see that I'd been doing it all wrong all this time. It wasn't the person who, after seeing us struggling one day with the walker, the wheelchair and all the stuff we bought, insisted on shipping our purchases home for us. It wasn't the princesses who spent a little more time with our daughter than with other kiddos. It wasn't the Guest Relations person who presented us with a two-day park hopper pass for the four of us to keep the magic going a little longer, a gift that made me teary with gratitude. It wasn't the volunteers at Give Kids The World - the resort where all Wish families stay - who are there to pay it forward the way someone had done for them when their terminally ill child was granted a wish. It wasn't even the other wish families we saw everywhere we went, who met our eyes with a look that said, "Us too." It was Mickey Mouse. After dancing with my daughters, twirling Freyja's wheelchair around and around, he tapped me on the shoulder. I'd just turned to leave, calling in my mom voice "Let's go girls, there are other kids waiting to have a turn with Mickey too." I turned back. Mickey stood before me with his arms open, and he pulled me into a hug that I had not known I needed. I let myself be embraced. Then, with his fingers, he made a shape of a heart and pointed to me, just as he had my girls a few minutes before. I love you. He made a muscle and pointed at me again, nodding his head toward my daughters. You're a strong mama. I didn't feel strong. But I suddenly felt seen by this stranger inside a Mickey Mouse costume, and finally, I felt the love that had been pouring from so many hearts over the past few months and years, which I'd refused to see because I thought I had to do everything by myself. I teared up as I walked away from Mickey. I wiped my eyes and took my husband's hand. "Did you see that?" I asked him. "I did," he said. "It's the way people have been looking at you since Freyja was born. Have you really never noticed it before?" A sculpture has risen in central Milan - an armchair stylized as a female torso, pocked with arrows and under attack by wild animals. It sits inert, chained to a spherical ottoman. Maesta Sofferente, or "Suffering Majesty," is the work of Gaetano Pesce, an Italian architect and pioneer of 20th century design. Extending more than 25 feet into the air, it is an homage to his late-1960s "Up" armchair, shaped like a buxom woman. "It's an image of a prisoner," the artist said of the original work. "Women suffer because of the prejudice of men." Fifty years later, the message of the new model, unveiled Sunday for the 2019 Milan Furniture Fair, which takes place this week, isn't sitting so well. One reason is that the symbolism of the beige sculpture is so unsubtle: the woman's limbs are the chair's armrests, while her breasts form the back support. It is scheduled to sit in front of Milan's cathedral through the week-long festival. Rather than challenging sexist tropes, critics claim, it stands as a monument to patriarchy and violence, representing women as helpless victims. At the unveiling ceremony in Milan's Piazza del Duomo, an Italian feminist group, Non Una Di Meno, led a demonstration in front of the work, carrying signs that read, "Ceci n'est pas une femme," or "This is not a woman." The slogan refers to the guileful text, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe," below a pipe in the famous surrealist painting, "The Treachery of Images," by the Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte. The protesters also highlighted the statistic that at least one woman is murdered in Italy every three days. They argued that the cruel spectacle was "further violence on women." "The woman for the umpteenth time is represented as a helpless body and victim, without ever calling into question the agent of violence," the activist group wrote on Facebook. The protest against the sculpture escalated on Monday, when the artist Cristina Donati Meyer splattered it with red paint to evoke menstruation, arguing that her addition was an attempt to "challenge and beautify" the piece. As it stood, she said, the statue was an "affront to all women" by depicting them as furniture, while removing their male oppressors from view. "The murderous man who kills and rapes is absent, innocent!" she observed. The uproar reflects broader concern about enduring patriarchy in Italian society, which has been rocked in recent years by a series of scandals involving sexual assault and the impunity of its perpetrators. Last month, Italy's Justice Ministry ordered an inquiry into the decision by an appeals court to clear two men of rape because the woman they had allegedly attacked was too masculine to be a credible victim. The former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has successfully climbed back into the good graces of many - and is running for a seat in the European Parliament - even as he faces charges of bribing a witness related to accusations, of which he has been acquitted, that he paid for sex with a minor. Italy has been slow to transform legal codes that placed women in positions of subordination. It wasn't until 1981 that it repealed a statute making it possible for men to elude charges of sex crimes by marrying their victims. In a post on Tumblr, Cristina Tajani, Milan's assessor for fashion and design, said she hoped that the debate over the statue would help shift attitudes in Italy. She acknowledged the criticism, noting two objections in particular - that the male perpetrator was absent and that the female victim lacked a head. If the piece spurs discussion about the aims of art and representation, she said, the design week "will not be passed in vain." WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was expelled from his hideout in Ecuador's embassy in London and charged in the U.S. with conspiracy, ending his seven-year standoff with British authorities and launching what could be a protracted battle to bring him to the U.S. for trial. The 47-year-old appeared handcuffed and disheveled in a London court, where prosecutors said he tried to resist what he called an illegal arrest. In a day of rapid-fire developments, the U.S. unsealed a year-old indictment accusing Assange of a hacking conspiracy with ex-U.S. Army analyst Chelsea Manning to disclose classified government material. That March 2018 indictment didn't address a more recent episode involving Assange's WikiLeaks -- its publication of waves of emails that embarrassed Democrats during the 2016 presidential election, a trove that U.S. prosecutors have said were stolen during a Russian intelligence operation. The matter was a central part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's now-completed investigation into Russian election meddling. If Assange is extradited, U.S. prosecutors could question him about matters beyond the Defense Department hack, according to Michael Koenig, a former Justice Department prosecutor. "The government is always happy and willing to listen to the any information it can obtain regarding matters under investigation or potential matters under investigation," said Koenig, now a partner at Hinckley, Allen & Snyder. But Assange "comes with baggage, and you can expect his credibility to come under heavy scrutiny," Koenig added. Before that can happen, the U.S. may face a pitched extradition battle with Assange's lawyers. At Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Assange pleaded not guilty to allegations that he had resisted arrest and skipped bail. His lawyers assailed the U.K. courts, saying he couldn't get a fair hearing in the country. The judge dismissed the claim as "laughable" and called Assange "a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interest." His first extradition hearing is scheduled for May 2. According to the newly unsealed U.S. indictment, Assange assisted Manning in "hacking a password stored on United States Department of Defense computers." WikiLeaks published the cables starting in 2010, followed by other documents taken by Manning. Assange's indictment brought relief to some in the media world because he wasn't charged with espionage. Press freedom advocates have long cautioned that such charges against him for releasing government secrets would put a chill on the press. There was also celebration across the political spectrum. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Assange's release of classified information "put our troops at risk and jeopardized the lives of those who helped us in Iraq and Afghanistan." Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, linked Assange to the Russian hacks. "Julian Assange has long professed high ideals and moral superiority," Warner said in a statement. "What he's really become is a direct participant in Russian efforts to undermine the West and a dedicated accomplice in efforts to undermine American security. It is my hope that the British courts will quickly transfer him to U.S. custody so he can finally get the justice he deserves." An indictment against a Trump ally, Roger Stone, provides clues to Assange's role. Trump campaign officials directed Stone to contact WikiLeaks during the period when the activist website was publishing the emails, which embarrassed top Democratic officials and Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, according to the case brought by Mueller's office. Assange's arrest came after Ecuador expelled him from its embassy in London. He had been there since 2012, when he sought to escape questioning in a Swedish sexual-assault case. While those charges were dropped in 2017, Assange remained in a small apartment in the embassy as he has continued to dodge U.K. police and American prosecutors. Barry Pollack, a U.S. lawyer for Assange, said on WikiLeaks' Twitter account that Assange's detention was "an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information." "This sets a dangerous precedent for all media organizations and journalists in Europe and elsewhere around the world," another Assange lawyer, Jen Robinson, said outside the London court. "This precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States." Assange drew worldwide notoriety in 2010 when WikiLeaks published the classified U.S. materials about the Afghan war that were stolen by Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst then known as Bradley Manning. Assange has said his activities were protected from U.S. prosecution because he acted as a journalist. But Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said last year that by exposing U.S. secrets and putting Americans at risk, WikiLeaks was more like a "hostile intelligence service." The existence of a Justice Department case against Assange came to light on Nov. 15, when federal prosecutors inadvertently disclosed charges against Assange in an unrelated case. That filing didn't detail the nature of the case against Assange. The newly unsealed indictment, dated March 6, 2018, accuses Assange of agreeing in March 2010 to help Manning crack a password on a Defense Department computer network that stored classified documents and communications. Manning, who had access to the computers as part of her duties as an intelligence analyst, gave a portion of the password to Assange to crack, storing it as a "hash value" in a computer file that she accessed using special software, the document said. Manning used the computers to gain access to hundreds of thousands of classified documents and transmit them to WikiLeaks. While Manning was stealing troves of data, Assange encouraged her to keep going, prosecutors said. They discussed the value of the Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment brief, after which Manning said, "that's all I really have got left," according to the filing. Assange replied: "Curious eyes never run dry in my experience." Now, it appears that prosecutors could be seeking more information from Manning even after she spent seven years in prison. Because prosecutors say Assange conspired to help Manning acquire and transmit the classified material, her actions would play a central role in any trial of Assange. In recent weeks, prosecutors have tried to compel Manning to testify to a federal grand jury in Virginia. She has refused despite being granted immunity by a federal judge and the Army. Manning is behind bars again as she fights the subpoena in an appeals court in Richmond, Virginia. Prosecutors haven't explicitly said why they need Manning's testimony, but it clearly could bolster the case against Assange. A March 4 filing by prosecutors said she should have to recount her role in "one of the largest leaks of classified information in American history." "Even assuming that Manning is correct that she will be asked about those offenses, such activity would fall squarely within the purview of a legitimate grand jury investigation,'' they wrote. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for violating the U.S. Espionage Act. After President Barack Obama commuted her sentence, she became an activist speaking on technology, artificial intelligence and national security issues. Assange faces as long as five years in prison. The next turn in his drama could come as soon as Friday, when Stone's lawyers are due to file a motion to dismiss his case. "As you know we have significant filings due in Mr. Stone's case on Friday; those filings will speak for themselves," Grant Smith, a lawyer for Stone, said by email when asked about how the Assange developments might impact that case. "Stay tuned." - - - Bloomberg's William Mathis, David Kocieniewski, Jonathan Browning, Thomas Beardsworth and Billy House contributed. WASHINGTON - Attorney Gregory Craig, who served as White House counsel for President Barack Obama, was charged Thursday with lying to federal officials who were examining whether he should have registered as a foreign lobbyist for legal work he did for the Ukrainian government in 2012. The indictment stems from work Craig did with GOP lobbyist Paul Manafort while Craig was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, the law firm he joined after ending his tenure at the White House. Manafort, the former campaign chairman to Donald Trump, pleaded guilty last year to charges related to his Ukraine lobbying. Craig's lawyers said the indictment is "a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion." "Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge," attorneys William Taylor and William Murphy said in a statement Wednesday. The case, brought by the U.S. attorney's office in Washington and the Justice Department's National Security Division, grew out of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Craig was charged with two felony counts in connection with alleged false statements related to his Ukraine work. He allegedly made the statements to Justice Department officials who were evaluating whether he should have registered as a foreign agent and in a later interview with Mueller's prosecutors. The charges each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison, though if convicted, Craig would likely be sentenced to serve far less. The Justice Department concluded that Craig should have registered as a foreign agent because of contacts he had with reporters on the Ukrainian government's behalf, according to the indictment. However, Craig was not indicted on a charge of violating the foreign registration act, whose five-year statute of limitations has expired. Craig's attorneys said Thursday that the indictment is "unfair and misleading" and "ignores uncontroverted evidence to the contrary." Craig had "no interest" in misleading Justice Department officials because "he had not done anything that required his registration," they said in a statement. "That is what this trial will be all about." Craig, 74, is the first prominent Democratic figure to be charged as a result of a foreign lobbying investigation spun out of Mueller's probe. The investigation led to the prosecution of Manafort, who was sentenced last month to a total of 7 1/2 years in prison for lobbying violations and financial crimes,and to a plea last year by another Skadden lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, who admitted to lying to the FBI. Craig's indictment represents a dramatic turn for a member of the country's most elite legal circles. Craig attended Yale University's law school with Bill and Hillary Clinton and later worked in the State Department and White House during the Clinton administration. An early Obama supporter, he served for a year as that president's first White House counsel. He is also a veteran of the Washington-based law firm Williams and Connolly. The charges relate to work Craig did in coordination with Manafort, who admitted that he hadn't properly register as a foreign lobbyist while working as a political consultant for Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Craig's firm was hired in 2012 by Yanukovych's Ministry of Justice to conduct a review of the prosecution of one of Yanukovych's leading political rivals, Yulia Tymoshenko. The agreement included providing advice on improving prosecutions by the ministry and was part of a strategy led by Manafort to bolster Ukraine's international image, according to court filings. Skadden produced a 187-page white paper that offered a mixed review of the trial and imprisonment of Tymoshenko, sayin gthe analysis it conducted of the case was independent. But human rights advocates said that the report had been engineered by Yanukovych's government and that it whitewashed the jailing of his political opponent. And Manafort eventually admitted that he and other lobbyists used the Skadden report as part of a broad effort to improve Yanukovych's reputation in the West after the widely condemned jailing of Tymoshenko. Manafort agreed that they didn't disclose their lobbying effort, which included disseminating the Skadden report to U.S. government officials. The Ukrainian government reported that Skadden was paid $12,000 for the report, but prosecutors have said Manafort used an offshore account to route another $4 million to the law firm to pay for the work. According to the indictment, a wealthy Ukrainian citizen agreed to foot the firm's multimillion-dollar bill. Skadden told the Justice Department in a January filing that it understood that the work "was to be largely funded" by Ukrainian steel magnate Victor Pinchuk, who has advocated closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union. Pinchuk's representatives have denied that he had any involvement with the report. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. Prosecutors said Craig sought to avoid registering as a foreign agent because he feared it would impede his future ability to reenter government service. He was also concerned that the disclosure that would be required would reveal the private payments - undermining the perceived independence of Skadden's work, according to the indictment. In their statement Wednesday, Craig's attorneys said that he participated in the Tymoshenko prosecution "an independent expert on the rule of law, not as an advocate for the client" and that he and Skadden took on the project "on the condition that their report would be independent." But prosecutors allege that Craig sought to hide the payments the firm received from the wealthy Ukrainian. They said he worked with a lobbyist to create false invoice from Skadden to the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, making it appear more of the firm's bills were being paid by the government. The lobbyist is not named in the court document, but the descriptions of his activities match those of Manafort. Craig also sought to hide his involvement in the public relations strategy around the report - activities he had been advised would required him to register as a foreign agent, prosecutors allege. Craig recommended a public relations firm for the project and worked closely with it, and also emailed a reporter before the release of the Skadden report, writing that he would be happy to get him the report "and even happier to talk to you about it," according to the indictment. The reporter was David Sanger of The New York Times, Times spokeswoman Ari Isaacman Bevacqua confirmed Thursday. She said the newspaper has not received a subpoena in connection with the case and has provided no information to the government about it. According to the indictment, Craig sent Sanger a copy of the report and hand-delivered it to his Washington home. Sanger wrote a story about the report, quoting Craig, the next day. After Craig spoke to The Times and several other reporters, Manafort told Craig in an email that the Ukrainian government was pleased with the rollout. "People in Kiev are very happy. You are 'THE MAN,' " he wrote, according to the indictment. Once Skadden's role in the report was mentioned in news coverage, the Justice Department sought information from the law firm about whether its work, including the media contacts, required the lawyers to have registered as foreign lobbyists. Craig and DOJ officials exchanged letters about the topic through 2013. The Justice Department determined in January 2014 that the firm did not need to register, based on what prosecutors said Thursday were false statements by Craig. According to the indictment, Craig said in writing and in a meeting with staff from the Justice Department's foreign registration unit in October 2013 that his contacts with the media had only been reactive and for the purpose of correcting misinformation. Prosecutors said Craig did not disclose that he had written the report with the understanding that it would be used by Manafort and the Ukrainian government to affect public opinion, that he had facilitated the hiring of a public relations firm and helped devise its media strategy and that he had reached out to Sanger to provide him a copy of the report and an interview before its public release. Skadden in January reached a settlement with the Justice Department, admitting it should have registered for its work in 2012 and 2013, and it agreed to turn over the $4.6 million in fees it made for the report in exchange for facing no criminal charges. In its settlement, Skadden agreed that the Justice Department's 2014 finding that the firm did not need to register came after the agency relied on "false and misleading oral and written statements" made by Craig. In their statement Wednesday, Craig's attorneys said he refused requests to participate in Ukraine's lobbying around the report. They said Craig "did not lie to his former firm or the government" and said his contact with The Times was intended to ensure that the newspaper accurately summarized the way the report criticized Tymoshenko's trial. Mueller's office referred Craig's case last year to prosecutors in Manhattan as Mueller worked to bring his investigation to a close. Craig's lawyers said they believe the New York prosecutors declined to prosecute the case. It was then transferred back to prosecutors in Washington. Separately, prosecutors in New York have been investigating whether foreign lobbying rules were violated by two other prominent Washington figures: Tony Podesta, a Democratic lobbyist who once owned one of Washington's leading firms, and Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman who helps lead the Washington office of Mercury. Representatives for Podesta and Weber have said they have cooperated with prosecutors and believe that their clients followed the law. - - - The Washington Post's Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report. Wait times at the ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border have soared as the Trump administration diverts officers to handle an influx of immigrants, leaving trucks backed up for hours and industry leaders warning of possible produce shortages and supply-chain interruptions. The clogged checkpoints are frustrating bankers, business leaders, local residents and even Mexico's foreign minister, who called the reassignment of hundreds of border officers to other parts of the nearly 2,000-mile boundary a "very bad idea." The shift in enforcement efforts is overwhelming legal checkpoints and impeding the free flow of goods and services, in some cases increasing wait times nearly fivefold. Executives described the scene at the southern boundary as a slow-motion facsimile of the border closure that President Donald Trump threatened two weeks ago before backing down amid protests that shutting down the border would hurt the economy. Trump said he would consider closing the border as a punitive measure if Mexico doesn't take steps to reduce the flow of migrants to the United States within the next year. Those now suffering the most because of backlogs at understaffed ports of entry are automakers, technology companies and farmers, who say that the slowdown is affecting the $1.7 billion a day in goods that cross the border between the United States and Mexico. Delays at ports in Texas have at times exceeded 10 hours in recent days. "This is a big, big cost and problem for companies, on top of everything else they're dealing with," said Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council. "It's just more uncertainty and more pain." On Monday, cargo trucks waited up to two hours to cross the bridge from Mexico into Brownsville, Texas, a city that had no delays at this time last year. On El Paso's Bridge of the Americas, cars and SUVs idled for 160 minutes, up from 45 minutes a year ago. Southern California's Otay Mesa cargo processing section took 270 minutes to push trucks through its crossing this week, up from 50 minutes last year. The lengthy delays are rippling through supply chains, resulting in higher costs and production disruptions. Because the wait times have grown so large, some companies are adding a second driver to their trucks because of government regulations limiting the number of hours a driver can work without resting. The streets around the Otay Mesa commercial crossing into San Diego were filled with bored and frustrated truckers. Juan Macareno, a truck driver from Ensenada, Mexico, said he has waited as long as eight hours to clear the border checkpoints in the past two weeks, up from the usual two hours. On Wednesday, he chatted on the phone and scrolled through his WhatsApp messages as traffic inched along. "Just waiting," he said, after driving a produce-filled truck into California. "You have nothing to do." Drivers say they are taking fewer routes, and others have been forced to stay overnight at some checkpoints because there aren't enough officers to process the long lines of trucks. Homeland Security officials say they are not intentionally slowing down processing times, but they acknowledge the frustrations the long lines have produced are helping them convey the severity of the border crisis. With 545 Customs and Border Protection officers reassigned to help the Border Patrol, a negative impact on travel times and cargo inspections is inevitable, one DHS official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to offer candid views. "Our intention is not to slow down commerce, it's to provide some relief to what's going on at the border," the official said. Border Patrol officials have repeatedly warned that immigration holding cells are jammed beyond capacity, with 10,000 to 13,000 in custody, creating dangerous and unsanitary conditions for migrants and officers. Authorities have said they are overwhelmed at the border and need more detention beds, officers and judicial support to process the rush of migrants. Some executives worry that if short staffing at the border checkpoints causes delays to continue, Mexico could retaliate by slowing southbound traffic. In a rare rebuke of U.S. immigration policy Wednesday, Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeted that the border slowdown is "creating costs . . . for both Mexico and the United States." High-level officials and business leaders are expected to discuss the delays Thursday and Friday at the U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue in Merida, a meeting held twice a year. The slowdowns at the border have come as the Department of Homeland Security has faced political upheaval amid a record surge of migrants that included apprehensions topping 100,000 last month. The crossings have infuriated the president, leading to the ouster of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who officially resigned effective Wednesday, five days after Trump rescinded the nomination of her top immigration enforcement deputy, Ronald Vitiello. He also resigned Wednesday. CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, who ran the agency that apprehends migrants at the border and screens cars and trucks passing through legal checkpoints, took over as acting DHS secretary on Wednesday. McAleenan takes over as the Trump administration seeks a solution for what it considers an illegal migration crisis but also as officers struggle to maintain order over legal trade at the border. In an informal survey by the Original Equipment Manufacturers Association, 42 percent of its members reported suffering delays in their shipments from Mexico to the United States. Of those companies, two-thirds said the delays reached seven to 12 hours, according to Julie Fream, the group's president. The association's members, which include companies such as Johnson Controls, Eaton and Tenneco, produce original equipment for automobiles. Automakers are perhaps the most vulnerable to a prolonged border slowdown. The industry sends unfinished cars back and forth across the southern border multiple times and relies on Mexican factories to produce critical parts, such as the wire harnesses that organize a vehicle's electrical cables. Continued disruption of shipping could soon interrupt production at American factories. "That's the concern," said Neil Bradley, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We're getting closer to that point." Companies already are preparing to reroute cargo. Just one more day of backlogs would be enough for one-third of those responding to the survey to switch cargoes from trucks to airfreight, Fream said. "All of those asked said they would seek alternatives if the delays continue for a week," Fream said. "These alternatives are very costly." The Port of Nogales, Arizona, a chronically understaffed major crossing point for fresh fruit and vegetables, was slated to receive an extra 75 border agents. But those agents have been redeployed to cope with the migrant surge, according to Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. "This is the new normal until they solve the problem at the border," he said Wednesday. Though delays in Nogales are not as severe as in Texas, they come after years of improvement in processing time. When Jungmeyer started working in Nogales in 2010, customs waits sometimes stretched to seven hours. Before the current staffing crunch, typical truck processing times were an hour or less, he said. In an April 4 conference call, CBP officials told shippers they should expect delays to persist "for the foreseeable future." If the migration surge continues for 30 more days - as it is predicted to do - the agency plans to strip some agents from airport posts to further reinforce the border deployment, Jungmeyer said he was told. Beyond that, agents will be taken from the northern ports of entry with Canada and shifted to the border. Jungmeyer said shifting resources away from the ports comes with costs that go beyond shipping delays: "We're only making our ports of entry less secure. We're encouraging bad players to take advantage of the ports of entry. We need to get customs officers back on line at the ports." Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, on Wednesday urged an effort to reduce the wait times at the border, calling on the Trump administration to "listen to the countless industries that rely on cross-border trade." The Texas International Produce Association asked McAleenan to dispatch officers and agents from the northern U.S. border and seaports to reduce delays. Their members report that wait times to cross the border have risen from 30 minutes to 4 1/2 hours. "We haven't seen issues like this in probably six years," said Dante Galeazzi, CEO and president of the association, adding that they are warning supermarkets and restaurants to expect delays and possibly shortages of avocados, mangoes, limes and other goods. "Obviously we think it's a bad thing." - - - Popescu, a freelance journalist, reported from San Diego. Staff members from Sarah D. Culbertson Memorial Hospital in Rushville meet with Assistant House Minority Leader Norine K. Hammond in Springfield. Christina Hardy (from left) and Leah Wilson visited during the Illinois Hospital Associations Quality Advocacy Showcase and spoke to Hammond about issues important to nursing and rural hospitals. Nearly two months after a gunman opened fire in an Aurora warehouse, Illinois lawmakers are proposing changes to the states gun licensing laws intended to make it harder for people barred from owning firearms to get guns. Among the changes proposed are requiring fingerprints as part of gun license applications and background checks on all gun purchases. The proposal also seeks to strengthen efforts to remove firearms from people whose firearm owners identification cards have been revoked, supporters said. Illinois gun license laws have become a flashpoint in the nearly two months since the Aurora shooting. The proposal, unveiled at a news conference at the Thompson Center in Chicago, is intended to address what advocates called loopholes in the states gun license laws. It seeks to address issues prevalent in the Aurora warehouse shooting, a November shooting at Chicagos Mercy Hospital where a gunman killed two hospital employees and a police officer, and other gun violence, advocates said. Gun violence in Illinois is a public health crisis, said Kathleen Sances, president of the Gun Violence Prevention PAC, which is sponsoring the proposal. It happens in the city, it happens in the suburbs and we need to fix it now. Among the proposed changes are required background checks for all gun sales, including those by a private seller, reducing the length of a valid gun license from 10 years to five and allowing Illinois State Police to deny a concealed carry license if it deems the applicant poses a significant danger of causing bodily injury to himself, herself or another person in the near future by possessing a concealed firearm. The legislation would require applicants for a gun license to apply in-person with the state police and submit fingerprints as part of their application. If a person whose firearm owner ID card has been revoked fails to turn over their guns to local law enforcement and complete the required paperwork, the proposal would require the state police to seek a search warrant to retrieve the weapons. State Rep. Kathleen Willis, the Northlake Democrat who sponsored the measure, said the proposal arose out of a conversation about the ways the Aurora warehouse gunman was able to get and keep the gun he used to kill five fellow Henry Pratt Co. employees and wound five Aurora police officers. Aurora Democrat Barbara Hernandez is also among the measures supporters. The Aurora gunmans criminal background should have prevented him from purchasing the gun used in the shooting, but he was issued a gun license in 2014 after a background check using five federal databases failed to show a mid-1990s felony conviction for aggravated assault in Mississippi. He did not submit fingerprints as part of his FOID application but chose to submit them later that year to expedite his application for a concealed carry license. Those fingerprints flagged his prior conviction. State police denied his concealed carry license and sent him a letter informing him his gun license had been revoked. He should have turned over his gun and provided a written account of his firearms to local law enforcement, but instead kept the gun for five years until he opened fire in February inside Henry Pratt. Willis said the fingerprint requirement in her proposal is intended to safeguard against applicants who might lie about their criminal history on an application, as state police have said the Aurora shooter did, and make sure an applicants criminal record shows up no matter the name it is listed under. The proposal to require gun license applicants to apply in-person is also intended to safeguard against lying, she said. Willis said additional costs to get a gun license are intended to help provide funding for law officers to enforce gun license revocations. She is working with state authorities on additional ways to make it more manageable for them to enforce FOID card revocations, she said. Key to the proposal, she said, are background checks on all gun sales. If we can have better checks at the front end, thats a few thousand people that wouldnt even get a FOID card, so thats a revocation we dont have to do down the line, she said. Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and one of the authors of a recent report on Illinois gun violence, called Illinois gun license laws one of perhaps the weakest systems. The gun license proposals in particular, the requirement that applicants go in-person and provide fingerprints could keep guns out of the hands of criminals, he said Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, blasted the proposal, calling it a crazy bill. ALTON Witnesses Wednesday testified that a man who looked like defendant Cameron Matlock was scuffling with another man in the middle of Union Street, then saw two men running, but one falling to the pavement. The man who kept running was identified as Matlock, and the other as murder victim Derrance Taylor, 34. The witnesses said they saw the man who looked like Matlock got into a car. The men said the heard a gunshot during the scuffle but did not see a gun or a muzzle flash. However, one of the witnesses told police that Matlock said, I f- up. I shot him. He said Taylor rushed him and he, Matlock, shot Taylor, but the gun jammed. Circuit Judge Kyle Napp said in court on Wednesday that there had been reports of threats on social media. She warned the people in the gallery that anyone posting any threats could be charged with a crime. Also Wednesday, Dr. Gershom Norfleet, a deputy medical examiner for St. Louis County, testified that Taylors body bore a contact wound, as if the shot was in contact with Taylors skin. He said the bullet pierced two arteries in Taylors heart, which would have allowed him to run only a few steps before losing consciousness. Matlock and friends were seen at the Historic Midtown, a former restaurant and then a club that stayed open after normal tavern hours. Taylor was reportedly buying people drinks and may have had $1,000 in his possession. They left the club about 4 a.m., and the shooting occurred a few minutes afterward. Sgt. Mike ONeill testified that police responded to Midtown to quell a disturbance, which often happened there. They heard gunshots and rushed to Union Street where they found Taylors lifeless body. He said police were told that Matlock had money in his possession after the robbery, but the defendant could have had money before the robbery. The detective said police looked for empty shell casings, but, if the gun was a revolver, the casings would remain in the weapon. The gun was never found, which is not uncommon, ONeill said. ONeill testified that Matlock became a suspect early in the investigation. Officers went to his mothers house and another location in Alton but did not find him. He went missing for 10 days, but the U.S. Marshalls Office found him in Missouri. The state rested its case Wednesday. The defense may rest Thursday. After closing arguments, the jury will likely get the case Thursday. The chairman of the Morgan County Commission is denying any conflict of interest in his relationship with a property owner in an area being considered for a proposed wind farm. Because the county could ultimately vote on whether to allow a 300-megawatt wind farm project by Apex Clean Energy, commission Chair Brad Zellers role with Z & R Property is under scrutiny. The group Morgan County Wind Watch has gone as far as calling for Zeller to step down from the commission something he told the Journal-Courier on Wednesday is not going to happen. Resident Bob Kindred read a letter at the commissions meeting Monday outlining the groups allegation of a conflict and their demands that Zeller recuse himself from votes related to wind projects and consider resigning. Zeller did not respond to Kindred and the group during the commission meeting, but said in an interview Wednesday that he has no business relationship with the property owner mentioned in the groups letter. Zeller is the agent listed for Z & R Property Inc., formed in 2010, according to Secretary of State records. He said Z & R Property was formed for non-commercial property they own together. The property is not leased for the proposed wind farm, he said. There is a Z & R Property. It is 20 acres of recreational farm ground with a pond on it, he said. Zeller confirmed that Richard Rees is involved in Z & R Property with him. Zeller said he has no business dealings with Rees or any property owner who has a lease with the wind farm project and that he doesnt have any financial investment in any properties that might be involved in the project. He said he does not see a conflict of interest. As a long-time resident of the area, Zeller said he has many friends there, including some who are lease holders and some who are against wind projects. He feels he has an obligation to stay neutral if the county receives an application for a wind permit. I know several people that have signed leases that I would consider friends and I dont feel I have a conflict. I have no financial interest with them and they have no more ability to influence my vote than my friends who arent lease holders and express their concerns about the wind project. I listen to every person that wants to come forward to me and hear both sides of the equation, he said. Thats what our job is at the county court to make the best decision possible for this county. Apex Clean Energys proposed Lincoln Land Wind farm would construct between 83 and 120 turbines in the eastern part of the county and supply energy to Amerens lines. The project is one of two that have been communicating with land owners, doing analysis and performing environmental impact studies on potential wind farm sites in Morgan County in recent months. The county has been reviewing its wind ordinance and no permit applications for wind projects are being considered until the ordinance has been updated. Zeller said he has no plans to resign and, if he were to recuse himself, that decision would be made when there is a vote to recuse himself from. When the vote happens if the vote happens the decision will be made at that time, he said. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., defended herself Wednesday against critics who questioned her loyalty to the United States after she referenced the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a short clip that circulated widely on social media this week, triggering a wave of outrage from the right. "I took an oath to uphold the Constitution," the freshman congresswoman said during a Wednesday appearance on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." "I am as American as everyone else is." Omar's 9/11 remark, a brief moment during a roughly 20-minute-long speech given last month at a Council on American-Islamic Relations event in Los Angeles, came after she incorrectly said the organization, which was founded in 1994, was created in response to the attacks. Omar, a Somali refugee, is Muslim. "Far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and frankly, I'm tired of it and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it," Omar said at the event. "CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties." Members of the GOP swiftly pounced on Omar's characterization of 9/11, claiming the congresswoman had downplayed one of the darkest events in modern U.S. history that left nearly 3,000 dead. The backlash came on the heels of Omar once again being accused of anti-Semitism by conservatives for calling White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who is Jewish, a "white nationalist." "First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as 'some people who did something,' " tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, on Tuesday. "Unbelievable." Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, slammed Omar as "anti-American." "Democrat leaders need to condemn her brazen display of disrespect," McDaniel tweeted. Omar's comment drew further criticism from the hosts of "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday. "You have to wonder if she is an American first," co-host Brian Kilmeade said. "Can you imagine if she was representing your community, and you were in her district, how embarrassed you must feel today." The statement even prompted the father of a New York firefighter who died on Sept. 11, 2001, to pen an op-ed in the New York Post titled, "My FDNY son's death on 9/11 was more than just 'something.'" "I think Omar owes an apology to America," Jim Riches wrote. "Until the time that you realize the importance of 9/11 as the worst day in American history, I call for your removal from Congress." Just hours after the Fox News segment aired, Omar fired back, specifically calling out Crenshaw and Kilmeade. "This is dangerous incitement, given the death threats I face," Omar tweeted. "My love and commitment to our country and that of my colleagues should never be in question. We are ALL Americans!" Omar, one of two Muslim women to ever serve in Congress, faced serious threats against her life as recently as last month, when a New York man promised to "put a bullet in her (expletive) skull." The man has since been arrested and charged, The Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez reported. On "The Late Show," Omar addressed the recent accusations of anti-Semitism and blamed the fierce criticism she often encounters on a "double standard," which she noted is "very much embedded in a lot of our culture these days." Colbert acknowledged that he had previously made similar comments about Miller on his show and did not experience the same amount of backlash as Omar. "You will have people come after minorities for things that they say or they might have insinuated," Omar said. "But no one goes after people like the folks on 'Fox & Friends.' ... They actually said I might not be American, that my loyalties might not be with this country." She later added: "You see this outrage when I speak the truth. Everyone else's truth is allowed, but my truth can never be." When asked by Colbert how she and fellow freshman congresswomen, such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who is also Muslim, felt about seasoned politicians advising them to "slow down," Omar had a blunt response. "We are not there to be quiet," she said, prompting cheers. "We are not there to be invisible." On Wednesday, a debate raged on social media over Omar's 9/11 statements, as her supporters argued that critics were "twisting" her words and attempting to "intimidate and silence her." Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., chastised "Fox & Friends" for questioning Omar's patriotism. "It's dangerous, not only to my colleague, but also to my Constitution," Smith tweeted. Another Twitter user wrote that Crenshaw "should be ashamed," and called the congressman's rebuke of Omar "an utterly dishonorable smear." While Crenshaw defended his criticism, tweeting that he never called Omar "un-American," nor did he "incite any violence" against her, Kilmeade appeared to walk back his earlier statements. "I didn't intend to question whether Rep. Omar is an American - I am questioning how any American, let alone a United States Congresswoman, could downplay the 9/11 attacks," Kilmeade tweeted. WASHINGTON - Former oil and gas lobbyist David Bernhardt was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to lead the Interior Department, an agency that controls nearly half a billion acres of public land and the vast amount of oil and gas mineral resources resting beneath it. The 56-41 vote Thursday promoted Bernhardt from the department's acting secretary, a job he assumed after his predecessor Ryan Zinke resigned amid numerous investigations into his behavior and management of the agency. Bernhardt had served as Zinke's deputy until his departure in December. Bernhardt's extensive experience at the Interior Department, where he served as solicitor during President George W. Bush's administration, was cited by his supporters who said he is more than qualified to lead the agency. But his work as a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry in the West, as well as large water utilities, led to concerns about conflicts of interest. The Interior Department oversees 700 million acres of public lands and 1.7 billion acres offshore, and it works closely with some of Bernhardt's former clients. Bernhardt has so many potential conflicts of interest that he carries an index card listing companies and people he should avoid. Concerns over ethics led to a heated confrontation between a Democrat who opposed Bernhardt's nomination and a Republican who opposed it at his confirmation hearing. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Bernhardt came to his office and assured him that he would follow ethics rules. Shortly after the meeting, Wyden said, he was startled to see that Bernhardt was the subject of a newspaper article that said he intervened on behalf of the oil industry and others to stop a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service analysis that said certain toxic pesticides used by such businesses threatened endangered animals. "Why would you come to my office and lie?" Wyden asked. The actions "make you sound like just another corrupt official," the lawmaker said. Wyden's statement was immediately countered by Bernhardt's friend and fellow Coloradan, Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican who said Democrats exhibited a double standard by supporting former Interior Secretary and petroleum engineer Sally Jewell but not Bernhardt. In the end, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Bernhardt's nomination by a 14-6 vote. Several Democrats joined Gardner and Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, in supporting the nominee. "I will work closely with Chairman Murkowski and my colleagues to ensure Mr. Bernhardt commits to the highest standards of ethics, not just in the letter of the law but truly the spirit of the law," said Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Shortly before the Senate vote, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., explained his support of Bernhardt. "I need to be able to pick up the phone and talk to the secretary of interior on a regular, regular basis because these things have direct impacts on New Mexico," Heinrich said Wednesday. "We didn't win the election in 2016, so I'm not going to get my choice for secretary of interior. In the meantime, I have to be able to work with these folks." Heinrich expressed particular concern about potential oil and gas drilling in the Chaco Canyon area near massive stone ruins considered sacred to the descendants of the ancient Pueblo civilization: "I'm going to put my state, and the protection of public lands in my state, ahead of the sort of political battle that happens in Washington, D.C." On the day of the Senate vote, Gardner again denounced Bernhardt's opponents and said the "Washington, D.C., political smear machine has been working overtime" to bring down a good man. Democrats and conservation groups in turn say Bernhardt has worked overtime to roll back key regulations protecting public lands and wildlife. With Bernhardt acting as an influential deputy under Zinke, the Interior Department held oil and gas lease sales that resulted in more than a billion dollars in revenue for the national treasury. But the agency also weakened enforcement of the 100-year-old Migratory Bird Treaty Act, allowing individuals and companies to kill scores of protected birds so long as investigators determine it was not intentional, reversing a longstanding rule. The pair also oversaw a rollback of National Park Service rules on federal land in Alaska. Now, hunters can kill mother bears and their cubs sleeping in dens; hunters may shooting animals from boats as game swims. Sen. Amy Klobachur, D-Minn., said Thursday that she opposed Bernhardt's nomination for several reasons, including his role in weakening enforcement of the law to protect birds and "stacking the deck in favor of the fossil fuel industry." Like other Democrats, Klobachur decried his actions to limit opportunities for the public to comment on the department's policy decisions and Bernhardt's directive to agency employees to not factor climate and environmental effects into guidance. Under Bernhardt, she said, the Interior Department has downplayed climate science and has made decisions and rules "that will accelerate its effect. The question is not is it happening . . . the question is what will we do about it," she said. - - - The Washington Post's Dino Grandoni contributed to this report Gov. J.B. Pritzker said state law should allow recreational marijuana users to grow their own cannabis at home, within limits. Pritzker, who has championed the push to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults in Illinois, told reporters Tuesday that he would support a provision allowing people to grow at home. People should have home grow, but the question is how much? he said. Lawmakers are still in talks about the details of a plan to tax and regulate recreational marijuana. Several law enforcement groups have come out in opposition to grow-your-own proposals. State Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, have discussed plans that would allow adults 21 and older to buy up to an ounce from licensed dispensaries and grow up to five plants indoors. However, Steans legislation, Senate Bill 7, doesnt yet contain any substantive details. That bill passed out of committee earlier this month with a promise that it be brought back with an amendment updating the proposal an effort meant to beat a deadline for bills to get out of committee. Lawmakers are still discussing whether the bill should allow adults to grow their own cannabis at home, Steans has said. While Pritzker supports home growing, he made it clear that he thinks there should be some limits. I dont think its a philosophical question about whether it should just be an open right for anybody to open their own farm in their basement, he said. The Virginia City Council will vote today to change water rates for the first time in years as the city struggles to make payments on its Environmental Protection Agency loan for a water plant built in 2010. Mayor Reg Brunk said the city has not missed any payments, but what the city owes for the plant not pumping at its full capacity has put the city in a horrible financial situation. The Illinois Rural Water Association reviewed the citys water financials and issued a report with recommendations that included raising rates. Brunk said the rate change the city decided to go forward with was among the options the IRWA calculated out. The change would modify the minimum water charge from a flat fee for the first 2,000 gallons used to a flat fee for the first 1,000 gallons used. The rate is $38. The rate for each additional 1,000 gallons is unchanged at $8.50. The average water customer in Virginia uses around 4,000-5,000 gallons each month, Brunk said. He said changing rates was a difficult decision, but the city had not raised rates in five years, while costs go up each year. We have taken the recommendations (in the report) to heart. We have done pretty much everything theyve asked us to do, he said. The report came about after the city reached out to the EPA to ask for changes to its loan terms to help the citys cash flow. Brunk said the city lost $59,000 on water last year. It was draining us pretty severely, he said. For the city to go back to the EPA to seek changes to its loan, Brunk said changes had to be made, including increasing revenue. They have to see that were making changes that will put us in the black. Its not going to be a lot. Its going to be close, but its going to be in the black, Brunk said. Public Works Director Randy McClure said the plant, which went online eight years ago this month at a price tag of around $16 million, is only pumping at about 25 percent capacity. He said the city and the water districts that buy from Virginia get new customers over time, and the city has considered reaching out to other municipalities. Virginia sells water to Arenzville Rural Water Cooperative, Cass Rural Water District #1 and North Morgan Water Cooperative. At the March 14 meeting, a resolution increasing water rates for the citys regional water customers was approved. The rate was increased by 30 cents per 1,000 gallons for all three. The new rate Arenzville Rural Water Cooperative pays to Virginia is $3 per 1,000 gallons and the new rate for Cass Rural Water District #1 and North Morgan Water Cooperative is $2.90 per 1,000 gallons. The residential water rate ordinance was introduced at the March 14 meeting. The change would begin with the May billing cycle. Sewer rates are unchanged. LONDON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was expelled from the Ecuadoran Embassy here Thursday and arrested on a U.S. hacking charge - maneuvers that initiated a potentially years-long legal battle over his extradition and reignited debates about press freedom. With Assange's arrest, U.S. and British authorities ended a seven-year saga in which the anti-secrecy crusader stayed just beyond their reach while his group dumped classified and politically volatile materials onto the Internet. U.S. prosecutors confirmed for the first time that they had secretly charged Assange last year in a conspiracy with an Army intelligence analyst to illegally obtain secret U.S. military and diplomatic documents, which Assange's group published online. He is accused of helping Chelsea Manning, the former soldier then known as Bradley Manning, perhaps unsuccessfully, try to crack a government password. It could be some time, though, before he answers to that charge in an American court. Analysts say Assange's extradition could take years, and only after he is in the United States can he begin what is expected to be a vigorous defense, arguing that he is like any newspaper publisher and that the charge against him is unjust. It is possible, too, that U.S. prosecutors could seek to bring more charges. The indictment, unsealed in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, mentioned only the 2010 publishing of military and diplomatic documents. It alleged that Assange conspired with Manning to obtain those materials. The indictment made no reference to WikiLeaks' more recent publishing of secret CIA hacking tools or its release of Democrats' emails, which authorities have said were stolen by Russia to affect the 2016 presidential election. President Trump once celebrated the organization for publishing those emails. London's Metropolitan Police, who took Assange into custody after Ecuador rescinded his asylum, said that the 47-year-old was "arrested on behalf of the United States." British authorities originally sought custody of Assange for jumping bail after Sweden requested his extradition in a separate case stemming from sexual assault allegations. The U.S. indictment was unsealed hours after Assange's arrest. Video of the arrest showed a gray-bearded Assange being hauled by British police officers down the embassy's steps and shoved into a police van. He appeared to be resisting. His hands were secured in front of him, clutching a copy of Gore Vidal's "History of the National Security State." Outside of court in London, Jennifer Robinson, one of Assange's attorneys, said Assange would fight extradition to the United States. She called the action against him "a dangerous precedent for all news media." Robinson said she was seeking medical care for Assange, whose health she said has suffered during his time in the Ecuadoran Embassy. The lawyer said Assange told her to thank his supporters and to say, "I told you so," presumably a reference to Assange's long-held prediction that the United States would seek his arrest and extradition if he left the embassy. Robinson told The Washington Post that Assange met Thursday morning with the Ecuadoran ambassador, who notified him that his asylum was being revoked. Then the Metropolitan Police were invited into the embassy, where they arrested him, she said. Assange was quickly found guilty of breaching his bail, an offense that carries a prison sentence of up to 12 months. He pleaded not guilty. Judge Michael Snow reprimanded Assange and said he demonstrated "the behavior of a narcissist." The court was told that Assange resisted arrest at the Ecuadoran Embassy, shouting, "This is unlawful!" Assange is expected to be sentenced for the bail charge at a later date. He is due to appear again in Westminster Magistrates' Court via video link on May 2 regarding the extradition matter. Trump - who declared, "WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks!" at an October 2016 rally in Pennsylvania - sought to dissociate himself with the group on Thursday. "I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It's not my thing. And I know there was something having to do with Julian Assange," he said. Attorney General William P. Barr will handle the matter, Trump said, adding: "I know nothing really about it. It's not my deal in life." The U.S. indictment, filed in federal court in March 2018 and unsealed Thursday, accuses Assange of agreeing to help Manning break a password to the Defense Department's computer network in 2010. That, prosecutors allege, would have allowed Manning to log in with another username. The indictment includes no evidence that the password-hacking effort succeeded. Even before the attempt to learn a password, Manning had given WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified records, prosecutors allege. The material allegedly included four nearly complete databases, comprising 90,000 reports from the Afghanistan war, 400,000 reports from the Iraq War and 250,000 State Department cables. Manning was imprisoned for seven years for violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, and was recently jailed again for refusing to testify before the grand jury. Her legal team demanded her release after Assange's arrest, saying in a statement that Manning's "ongoing detention can no longer be seriously alleged to constitute an attempt to coerce her testimony." Ecuador, which took in Assange when he faced a Swedish rape investigation in 2012, said it was rescinding asylum because of his "discourteous and aggressive behavior," and for violating its terms. The British government heralded the development. "Julian Assange is no hero and no one is above the law," said Jeremy Hunt, Britain's foreign secretary. "He has hidden from the truth for years." Hunt said it was Assange who was "holding the Ecuadoran Embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them." The foreign secretary praised Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno for making "a courageous decision." Sweden dropped its sex crimes inquiry in May 2017. Assange had always denied the allegations. More than anything, however, he fears extradition to the United States, which has been investigating him for alleged espionage, the publication of sensitive government documents and coordination with Russia. The Russian government accused Britain of "strangling freedom" by taking custody of Assange. The Ecuadoran president specifically cited Assange's involvement in what he described as WikiLeaks' meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, and referred to the leaking of Vatican documents in January. WikiLeaks leveraged the arrest as a fundraising opportunity. "This man is a son, a father, a brother," the group said in a tweet, above a headshot of Assange. "He has won dozens of journalism awards. He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him." From Moscow, Edward Snowden, the fugitive American former National Security Agency contractor, described Assange's arrest as a violation of press freedom. "Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the UK's secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of - like it or not - award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books," Snowden wrote on Twitter. "Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom." Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had a less charitable take on Assange. "Whatever his intentions when he started WikiLeaks, what he's really become is a direct participant in Russian efforts to undermine the West and a dedicated accomplice in efforts to undermine American security," Warner said. "It is my hope that the British courts will quickly transfer him to U.S. custody so he can finally get the justice he deserves." Barry Pollack, Assange's U.S.-based attorney, said that although the indictment charges Assange with conspiracy to commit computer crimes, the factual allegations against him "boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source." Ahead of the U.S. election in 2016, WikiLeaks released tens of thousands of emails that had been stolen from the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, in hacks that U.S. intelligence officials concluded were orchestrated by the Russian government. When special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers in July, he charged that they "discussed the release of the stolen documents and the timing of those releases" with WikiLeaks - referred to as "Organization 1" in the indictment - "to heighten their impact on the 2016 presidential election." Among the former Trump aides indicted as a result of Mueller's investigation was Roger Stone, a longtime friend of the president accused of lying, obstruction and witness tampering. Stone's indictment charged that he sought to gather information about hacked Democratic Party emails at the direction of an unidentified senior Trump campaign official. He has pleaded not guilty. In the Obama administration, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. decided against pursuing prosecution of Assange out of concern that WikiLeaks' argument that it is a journalistic organization would raise thorny First Amendment issues and set an unwelcome precedent. The Trump administration and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, however - eager to crack down on the unauthorized disclosure of government information - revisited the question of prosecuting members of WikiLeaks early in the administration. A court filing error in November revealed that Assange had been charged under seal. Some federal prosecutors say a case can be made that WikiLeaks is not a journalistic organization. As if to lay the groundwork for such an argument, in April 2017, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, now secretary of state, characterized WikiLeaks as a "nonstate hostile intelligence service" and a threat to U.S. national security. Pompeo also noted then that the intelligence community's report concluding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election also found that Russia's primary propaganda outlet, RT, "has actively collaborated with WikiLeaks." Assange's expulsion from Ecuador's embassy reflects a shift in the country's politics since it first extended refuge to him. Sebastian Hurtado, president of the political consulting firm Profitas in Quito, Ecuador, said: "I think the president has never been comfortable with Assange in the embassy. And it's not like this is an important issue for most Ecuadorans. To be honest, we really don't care about Assange." Another hint that Assange was wearing out his welcome came in March 2018, when Ecuador cut off his Internet access, saying he had breached an agreement not to interfere in the affairs of other states. The embassy did not specify what Assange had done, but the move came after he tweeted criticism of Britain's assessment that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of a Russian former double agent and his daughter in the city of Salisbury. Ecuador imposed tighter house rules last fall. Among the demands were that Assange pay for his medical and phone bills and clean up after his cat. - - - McAuley reported from Paris. Nakashima reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Anthony Faiola in Miami, Karla Adam in London, and Rachel Weiner and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report. Timbs v. Indiana has received a lot of attention because it deals with a controversial subject civil asset forfeitures. But as a practical matter, this case is unlikely to have much of an impact. What this case now requires under the Constitution has long since been required under state constitutions. In Timbs, the Supreme Court held unanimously that the Eighth Amendment Excessive Fines Clause applies to states and local governments. This ruling is unsurprising given that the Supreme Court has incorporated almost all of the Bill of Rights against states and local governments since the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868. The Supreme Courts opinion explains why this case doesnt change much. All 50 states constitutions have excessive fines clauses that apply to states and local governments some for centuries. It is possible that some of these state constitutional provisions have been interpreted differently than the federal provision. But there is so little federal case law on what is an excessive fine that it is unlikely most interpretations of state constitutions contradict the scant federal case law. If the Supreme Court had ruled that the fine in this case was (or even wasnt) excessive, that would have been a much bigger deal. Remarkably, in only one case has the Supreme Court ever considered whether a fine was excessive. In United States v. Bajakajian, Hosep Bajakajian failed to comply with federal law requiring him to report that he was leaving the United States with more than $10,000. The federal government sought to forfeit the entire amount: $357,144. The Supreme Court concluded the amount of the forfeiture was unconstitutionally excessive because it wasnt proportional to the gravity of the offense. Bajakajian didnt fit into the class of persons for whom the statute was principally designed: He is not a money launderer, a drug trafficker, or a tax evader. The maximum monetary penalty for his crime was $5,000. And as Justice Clarence Thomas pointed out: had his crime gone undetected, the Government would have been deprived only of the information that $357,144 had left the country. United States v. Bajakajian involves an extreme case an enormous forfeiture for a relatively minor offense. It provides little guidance on when a fine is excessive. In contrast, the forfeiture in Timbs is smaller (a vehicle valued under $40,000) and the offense is more serious (drug dealing). And while the maximum monetary penalty for the single drug-dealing charge to which Timbs pled guilty is $10,000, that same maximum $10,000 fine also applies to murder in Indiana. In addition, Timbs confessed to using his vehicle to purchase heroin on many occasions. Given this mix of factors, the Indiana Supreme Courts decision on remand will give Hoosiers more guidance on how it will apply the federal Excessive Fines Clause in future cases. Another vexing question not at issue in Timbs v. Indiana is when, if ever, government assessments other than those imposed at criminal sentencing and civil asset forfeitures may constitute fines subject to the Excessive Fines Clause. In only three cases has the Supreme Court determined whether a particular government assessment is a fine. The Supreme Court has previously held that criminal and civil forfeitures are fines because they constitute punishment. So, in Timbs the court didnt provide any guidance on what is a fine. Had it done so this case would have been a bigger deal. The Supreme Court will have another chance to tackle the question of what is a fine if it agrees to decide Lovelace v. Illinois. Lovelace was acquitted of all charges (including murder) but the court retained 10 percent of his bond, above the direct costs of administering the bond, totaling $35,000. Lovelace argues the bond retention is a fine and that it is excessive in light of his exoneration. The lower court held that it is a fee and not a fine. So, the Excessive Fines Clause didnt apply. Undoubtably, Timbs v. Indiana provides states and local governments a reminder to look at their assessments and determine whether they are fines and if so whether they are excessive. But what Timbs v. Indiana doesnt do is offer any guidance on how to make either determination. The real impact of Timbs v. Indiana may be that by agreeing to decide an excessive fines forfeiture case the High Court is signaling it is interested in all three related topics. Stay tuned to see if the Supreme Court grants the Lovelace petition. Lisa Soronen is executive director of the State and Local Legal Center in Washington. She wrote this for InsideSources.com. We live in an age when assigning blame has become a national obsession, especially when it comes to the horrors of the opioid crisis. How did this happen? Who is responsible? Hearsay builds upon hearsay in the search for culprits, until guilt is assumed - without evidence. My late husband, Arthur Sackler, who died in 1987, has been found guilty by association - along with the rest of what is referred to by the blanket designation "the Sackler family" - because of some family members' association with Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. Yet like most families, the Sackler family is not a monolith. Neither Arthur nor his heirs had anything to do with the manufacture or marketing of OxyContin. Suggestions that his philanthropy is now somehow tainted are simply false. Purdue Pharma in its current form was founded by Arthur's younger brothers, Mortimer and Raymond, four years after his death. None of the 1,600-plus lawsuits filed against Purdue Pharma, members of the Sackler family or others in the opioid business names Arthur or his heirs as defendants. Arthur died of a heart attack nearly 32 years ago at age 73, nearly a decade before OxyContin came to market. He was a psychiatrist, researcher and successful medical marketer in the nascent years of modern advertising. In 1960, he published one of the first newspapers for doctors, which eventually was distributed to 20 countries in eight languages. As a respected American medical expert, he was invited in 1976 to advise the Chinese Ministry of Health. In addition to his work in medicine, Arthur was an avid art collector and connoisseur. During the 1950s he started several personal foundations for the arts, sciences and humanities. During the 1960s he funded the first Asian art gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in an era when Asian art was underappreciated in the United States. In the 1980s, he donated 1,000 remarkable pieces of Asian art to the Smithsonian Institution and helped fund the construction of a museum to house them. He died a few months before the museum bearing his name opened on the Mall. It is incredible to me that last year, the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art was the target of demonstrators protesting the opioid crisis. Other institutions that benefited from his philanthropy have also been targeted. Even critics who acknowledge that Arthur died long before the invention of OxyContin nevertheless maintain that he somehow shares responsibility for this scourge because he was a pioneer in medical marketing, and medical marketing has encouraged the spread of OxyContin. Arthur is not here to answer back, but I can tell you that blaming him for OxyContin's marketing, or for any other wrongdoing by the pharmaceutical industry, is as ludicrous as blaming the inventor of the mimeograph for email spam. Fair-minded people who see the terrible consequences of the opioid crisis understandably seek justice and restitution. They demand that legal settlements fund treatment centers for all in need. For that, I am in wholehearted support. But make no mistake: Vilifying an innocent man is wrong. It does nothing to help the United States come to grips with the epidemic, nothing to advance solutions. It is profoundly hurtful to his family and to institutions such as the Smithsonian, which are now unjustly under pressure to distance themselves from his name and his gifts. --- Sackler is president and chief executive of the Dame Jillian and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities. OS National LLC will invest more than $15 million in an expansion of its suburban Atlanta headquarters that will create more than 1,000 jobs, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development. OS National Managing Partner Jamie Wunder said the company believes its Gwinnett County headquarters can support its explosive growth and strategic expansion efforts across the U.S. Read on for more details. Fancy a cruise along the Danube? How about this one with Fred Olsen which sails from Hirsova to Budapest on the Brabant from 2,199 pp When: 7th September 2019 Ports of call Hirsova, Romania St Gheorghe, Romania Ruse, Bulgaria (overnight stay) Vidin, Bulgaria Cruising the Iron Gates, Serbia Belgrade, Serbia (overnight stay) Novi Sad, Serbia Cruising the Tisa Plain, Hungary Kalocsa, Hungary Budapest, Hungary (overnight stay) From passing the point where the Danube meets the Black Sea to visiting beautiful Budapest and discovering an abundance of scenic and city delights in between, there are a plenty of simply unforgettable experiences to enjoy on this stunning river cruise aboard Brabant. On day one of this memorable ten-night river cruise youll witness the River Danube flowing into the Black Sea, and have the opportunity to take a small boat tour into the beautiful Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve during a stop at picturesque St Gheorghe. The following day you could tour to Bucharest if you wish, before continuing your adventure in Ruse. Nicknamed Little Vienna, Bulgarias fifth largest city is renowned for its stunning architecture and elegant squares. Must-visit sites here include the Monument of Liberty and the Danube Bridge. Further along the Danube, a stop at the remote port town of Vidin home to the medieval Baba Vida Fortress is followed by a momentous journey through the awe-inspiring Iron Gates. Admire stunning national parks lining the river, which narrows to just 150 metres-wide at the Great Kazan gorge, and be on the lookout for the famous Rock Sculpture of Decebalus from the decks of Brabant.Show less After marvelling at the glory of the Iron Gates youll arrive in Serbias enchanting capital, Belgrade. A full day here is sure to be rewarding with time to discover the citys historic monuments and museums, wander along Knez Mihailova Boulevard and savour the views on offer from the Kalemegdan Fortress. Staying in Serbia, a stop at Novi Sad a future European Capital of Culture is up next. The main landmark here is the unmissable Petrovaradin Fortress and its world-famous clock tower, while Zmaj Jovina is the perfect place for a relaxing stroll. A scenic cruise through the fertile plains of the Tisa-Danube basin follows, as you head for the fourth and final country on your itinerary, Hungary. Kalocsa is the first of two engrossing Hungarian calls; from here you can take a tour to learn about the history of Paprika or catch a traditional Hungarian horse show within Puszta plains. Finally, UNESCO-listed Budapest with all its historic highlights and attractions is the perfect last stop. Before heading home be sure to take in the Buda Castle complex and the Millennium Underground Railway, and wander along Andrassy Avenue to Heroes Square. BOOK THIS CRUISE NOW The InternationalSchool of Uganda (ISU) is a non-profit, co-educational day school, establishedin 1967, offering an international education program for students 3 to 19 yearsold. The International School of Uganda ( ISU ) is dedicated to providingworld-class, holistic education in a multi-cultural setting, inspiring andequipping students to be life-long learners, to reach their full potential andto be responsible global citizens active in shaping the future. The Regional Program Manager is a member ofSenior Management Team (SMT). S/he will be responsible for the overallmanagement of Food for the Hungrys programs in Uganda, focusing on theassigned Clusters. The position will support the scale up of programing in linewith the Country strategy and FHs primary program model coded Child FocusedCommunity Transformation (CFCT). The position holder will also assist theProgram Director (PD) representing Food for the Hungry towards donors,development partners and co-ordination bodies and authorities where required.The Regional Programs Manager will have overall accountability to ensurequality, timely and effective implementation of Food for the Hungrys programs& projects, upholding organizational values and principles. The Office of theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14,1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. UNHCRs mandate under the Statuteof the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is to leadand co-ordinate action for international protection to refugees; seek permanentsolutions for the problems of refugees and safeguard refugee rights andwell-being. UNHCR has an additional mandate concerning issues of statelessness,as it is given a designated role under Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on theReduction of Statelessness. An anti-Brexit protester holds a placard outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, on March 19, 2019. The Brexit crisis has been dragging on for a long time now. A referenduma vote in which basically everyone can take partwas held in June 2016 to decide a serious and complex issue: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? The decision that followed has not only plunged Britain into chaos but also created huge uncertainty over the future of UK-EU relations, which will haunt the UK and the world for years to come. The UK had been scheduled to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, two years after the Brexit decision. However, the country is deeply split over Brexit and there is no plan for what comes next. Until recently, the UK had been due to exit the EU on April 12, with or without a plan. However, according to the latest extension agreement with the EU, the UK has until October 31 to find the best solution. Regardless of the outcome, Brexit should serve as a warning sign that Western-style democracy can be more than just messyit can fail. Brexit has shown what can happen when planning and rationality are thrown out the window and when populism prevails in making a crucial decision like the one to leave or stay in the EU. In fact, chaotic episodes are unfolding across the Western world, raising questions about the credibility and effectiveness of Western-style democracy, and this has led people to ask what is different about Chinas socialist democracy and what its advantages are. For academics like Zhang Weiwei, a professor at Fudan University, the Chinese system has two main advantages: democratic centralism and consultative democracy. As Zhang explains it, these advantages mean that China really consults a wide range of opinions before it makes decisions. In the end, he says, you reach better decisions. A typical example is Chinas five-year plan process, which is used to orientate the country, the economy, and social development. The planning process involves hundreds of rounds of discussions at all levels with input from the government, people inside and outside the ruling party, think tanks, and people from all walks of life. This is very different from the American model for instance. In the United States, politicians try to sell their ideas to the public. This invites a variety of special interests and other groups to influence the public through various ways. In such a system, there is a large gap between how democracy is sold and how it works. In China, after the country releases a five-year plan, the government explores the best ways and means to implement the plan, and various measures are generally added to suit local conditions since China is a big country and situations are different. The essence of the system is to reach the best possible decision after a reasonable amount of discussion, which is important in a large and diverse country like China, as well as the UK. As Zhang has pointed out, the outcome of a referendum might not matter so much for a country with a small population, but in a country like China, even if only 10 percent of the people disagree, that is equal to about 140 million people. Therefore, many Chinese scholars argue that the Brexit vote was a fatal mistake. The gap between leaving and not leaving the EU was very small, with the UK voting to leave the EU by 52% to 48%. Not only was the outcome of the referendum unpredictable, but the result has exacerbated the deep divisions in Britain rather than build consensus. The outcome shows that the referendum process is just too primitive to work effectively in todays world. It worked in ancient Greek towns with a population of 10,000 people, but the UK is one of the worlds biggest economies with a population of over 66 million people. To make matters worse, at the time of the referendum in 2016, the relationship between Europe and the UK, which is built on a mountain of agreements, was generally misunderstood, and most British people did not understand Brexit. The Brexit mess reveals a lot about rising populism in the West. Remember the big red Brexit Bus with a loud political ad that screamed: 350 million? It warned British citizens that the EU was a drain on the national economy and that the millions it sends to the EU every week could be used to fund things at home like the National Health Service. It boiled down to money, so old people voted overwhelmingly in favor of Brexit and the interests of young people were sacrificed. Unlike Western-style democracy, Chinas consultative democracy aims to bring people together in order to pool wisdom and reach consensus among the largest possible number of people. It works by representing the overall interests of the people. Such consensus is much harder to accomplish in the Western model, where decisions are largely made by a small circle who then try to sell them to the public. Who knows what is next for Brexit. For sure, the chaos will likely rage on for years, regardless of the outcome in October. But what we do know is that the UKs Brexit drama has trapped the country in a serious political dilemma, and it should serve as an example of Western-style democracy failure. Westerly, RI (02891) Today A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 47F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 47F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. More than one million parents in Britain are thought to have had prams stolen often in broad daylight, shock new research suggests. With the average cost of a stolen pram sitting at 487, buggy bandits cost British parents more than 60million a year, according to research - and are specifically targeting expensive brands. One such parent is Katie Jackson. The 24 year-old from York had her 150 Silver Cross pram stolen last year from the communal area of the flat she lived in. Her youngest son was just six months old. On the day that it happened, her dad had visited to drop something off. He took the pushchair down from her second floor flat. Katie Jackson (24), pictured here with three year old Frankie (left) and Liam who is now 18 months old, had her Silver Cross pram valued at 150 stolen near her home in York last year She says: 'I asked if he would take the pushchair downstairs with him as I was due to go out about an hour later and wanted help taking it downstairs. My other son was two at the time so I needed help carrying it. 'I went downstairs about two hours later and it was gone. I was shocked because I didn't think people would steal a baby's belongings. 'We used the pram for my first born and had it about two years. I would often leave it at the bottom of the stairs in the communal area and until the theft it's always been safe.' She reported it to the police - but to no avail. She had to fork out for a replacement as she didn't have contents insurance. Katie adds: 'I never thought to get a pushchair insured and didn't think it would be stolen. I don't have contents insurance.' Katie is one of thousands of parents who've fallen victim to the rising scourge of buggy thieves who prey on coveted pram brands that are left outside shops, cafes, homes, parks and elsewhere to sell on. According to data obtained by comparison website Confused, parents with designer buggy brands are at higher risk. The most popular brands targeted by thieves are Mothercare (13 per cent), Silver Cross (12 per cent) and Mamas and Papas (11 per cent). However, only 3,000 pram thefts have been officially recorded by police in the last four years. With the average cost of a stolen buggy being 487 thefts could be costing British parents more than 60m a year A spokesman for the price comparison website explains that the data was obtained through a freedom of information request to police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Nearly half of the forces that responded said pram thefts had either increased or remained the same between 2017 and 2018. But the figures drawn from various constabularies don't show the scale of the problem. Five ways to protect your pram from thieves Thieves are on the lookout for designer buggy brands to steal but there are things you can do to ensure you're not a victim. 1. Use a lock: Just like bikes, buggies can also be secured with a lock and chain to an immovable object. There are many different types available on the market. They are not entirely tamper proof though and are there as more of a deterrent to opportunistic theft. 2. Label or mark your pram: Labelling your pushchair with your name will help you to quickly identify it and reduce the risk of it being taken in the first place. Also keep the original receipts, which will be useful in identification and if you put in a claim with your insurance company. 3. Remove a part: Many prams can be disassembled, which can be an advantage if you need to leave it out in public as it will be less attractive to thieves. 4. Remove your valuables: Make sure you don't leave any possessions with your buggy such as shopping bags, handbags, and coats as this will be an additional attraction for thieves. 5. Leave it at home: Can you transport your baby another way? If you know you have to leave your buggy outside when you arrive at your destination it may be better to leave it at home. She explains: 'A lot of the constabularies couldn't report numbers to us because prams aren't a subclass [of theft]. 'As it's such a niche thing they had to go through them manually. 'A lot didn't come up as a result so the FOI is a very conservative number and police reporting isn't clear.' One in six parents (17 per cent) of children under 12 said they've had a pram or buggy stolen. This is equivalent to an estimated 127,000 thefts a year. Of these, more than two in five didn't report the incident to the police. Parents often don't report the theft because they may not have insurance for goods used outside the home. The Confused spokesperson explains: 'So they don't have the pram listed as an item used outside of the home or don't want to lose their no claims bonus. 'Some don't feel it's worth it to lodge an insurance claim. 'If, for instance, a pram is worth 300 and excess 250 it doesn't make sense to claim on the insurance for 50 and lose your no claims bonus.' On top of this, a number of other high-value items are stolen too. According to the research, nine in 10 buggy thefts additional items were taken. The most common were mobile phones (29 per cent), handbags (26 per cent), wallets (24 per cent) and tablets (20 per cent). Parents in the Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Essex areas are most at risk of having their prams stolen. Analysis of the FOI data revealed particularly high volumes of thefts in these constabulary areas, with specific 'pram theft hotspots' identified. These include Failsworth West in Oldham, Greater Manchester, the South and West Districts of Leeds in Yorkshire and Basildon town centre in Essex. Parents with designer buggy brands are at higher risk. The most popular brands targeted by thieves are Mothercare (13%), Silver Cross (12%) and Mamas and Papas (11%) The thieves are often audacious with their crimes with prams are often stolen in broad daylight and in public spaces. The most common locations for pram thefts were cafes, public car parks, outside supermarkets and from the owner's home. Confused said that many parents feel overwhelmed when it comes to purchasing, protecting and safe-guarding their buggies. The comparison site said they're most often baffled by which pram is best for their child's size and age, followed by being unclear on security options and unsure whether or not to report a stolen pram to the police. The good news is that data shows that more parents are listing expensive prams on their home insurance policies. However, Confused is still calling on parents to ensure they have adequate cover for items taken outside of the home. The spokesman at Confused adds: 'It's easy to forget about your valuables when minding a small child. 'And knowing how to keep a pram secure can be baffling for parents. In fact, one in eight admit they're confused about the different security options for their pram or pushchair. 'We want parents to protect their prams at all costs, from investing in security locks to ensuring their pram is covered by their insurance.' Businesses are outraged over the six months of fresh Brexit purgatory to which they are condemned, but there are some problems that are even more difficult than extricating ourselves from the EU. Climate change, to name one. It used to be left to the lentil-munchers, but it has gone mainstream in the financial world as it dawns on economists, politicians and money managers that there are huge risks and large potential rewards. This is why David Attenborough was such a hot ticket at Davos in January and at the International Monetary Fund spring meetings this week. Threat: Climate change has gone mainstream in the financial world as it dawns on economists, politicians and money managers that there are huge risks and large potential rewards It is also why tackling climate change is near the top of Philip Hammond's agenda when he arrives in Washington, despite the Brexit negotiations. Investors are now taking climate change very seriously indeed. A report by advisory firm Mercer this week found that high levels of global warming would cause negative effects across swathes of the stock market, and BlackRock, one of the biggest fund managers on Wall Street, recently warned that investors are underestimating climate risks. The City was somewhat mystified as recently as 2015 when Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned of financial crises and falling living standards unless carbon emissions were curbed. At the time, there were mutterings about whether this was 'too political' and not quite the sort of thing that came under his remit, but Carney was just a couple of steps ahead. The Lloyd's of London insurance market has also been on the front foot because of the obvious fear of ruinous payouts for natural disasters. Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, is pledging extra funding from the UK to help deal with the devastating effects of Cyclone Idai, which has wreaked havoc across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Over the next century, rising temperatures will make events like these more frequent. Modern lifestyles are spawning new environmental problems. Our addiction to devices, for example, means that the world now produces more so-called e-waste discarded electronic devices than the weight of all the commercial jets ever built, with Africa as a prime dumping ground. Climate change poses risks across a swathe of sectors including oil, car making, property, agriculture, tourism and insurance. It threatens shortages of food and water, which in turn could lead to more migration. There is a threat to financial stability as banks could also find themselves loaded with bad loans to bust companies. On the positive side, there are opportunities for innovation in green energy and for banks to finance the transition to a low carbon economy. Legal & General, which looks after around 1trillion of investors' cash, has just finished a year-long research project into the transition to greener energy and concluded it will create trillions of dollars of investment opportunities. Companies and their auditors will come under pressure to reveal their exposure to climate change rating agency Standard and Poor's is this week launching a new service assessing environmental and social risks, alongside its credit rankings. The penny is dropping that climate change isn't merely an ethical issue, but a serious financial one. Smith's travels WH Smith stores, like branches of Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, are replete with nostalgia. Back in the day it was where people went for paperback classics and school protractors. Now it is yet another casualty on the UK High Street, though fortunately its travel business, the stores in railway stations and airports, is acting as a get-out-of-jail-free card. It says something that a 2 per cent fall in high street sales is its second-best trading performance in a decade. The travel side now is responsible for more than 70 per cent of operating profit. The acquisition of US airport retailer InMotion looks to be an astute move and the dividend policy is generous with the bonus of a 25million buyback. Overall, there was a small drop in profits these days, that counts as not too bad. Green on the ropes The party is over for Sir Philip Green, as I wrote on these pages a couple of weeks ago when his 67th birthday went unmarked by his usual lavish celebrations amid rumours his empire was heading for a CVA. Long-time associates like Baroness Brady, who quit the board of parent company Taveta, have jumped ship and restructuring specialists have been installed on the Arcadia board. Green's long-standing nemesis, Labour MP Frank Field who clashed with him over the BHS pension fund, is rumbling ominously. It's not looking good for the shouty tycoon. British drug maker Indivior faces bankruptcy after the US Government accused it of overseeing a multi-billion pound fraud to drive up sales of its opioid addiction treatment. The FTSE 250 firm's shares crashed by more than 70 per cent after prosecutors claimed it had engaged in a 'truly shameful scheme' that put profits before the health of patients. It is accused of using shaky evidence to falsely claim a new version of its Suboxone treatment was safer than rival products and raking in billions of pounds from subsequent sales. Indivior's shares crashed by more than 70 per cent after prosecutors claimed it had engaged in a 'truly shameful scheme' that put profits before the health of patients If found guilty, the company will be ordered to hand over at least 2.3billion. But analysts have warned Indivior cannot afford to pay. Shares fell 72 per cent, or 75.9p, to 30.05p - valuing it at just 219million. It was worth 774million before yesterday's sell-off and 3.6billion last summer. Every year millions of Americans use opioids to manage pain triggering an addiction epidemic that has been described as the worst drugs crisis in US history. More than 72,000 people in the US died from drug overdoses in 2017 alone, according to official figures, with two thirds of these linked to opioids. Announcing the charges brought by a federal grand jury, American prosecutors said 'the deadly opioid epidemic continues to devastate communities and families across our nation'. They said Indivior and its executives were 'in a position to know the harm opioid abuse inflicts' but had chosen to 'profit illegally from the pain of others'. Jody Hunt, of the Department for Justice, said: 'Opioid addiction is a national epidemic. Rather than marketing its opioid-addiction drug responsibly, Indivior promoted it with a disregard for the truth about its safety and despite known risks of diversion and abuse.' Mark Herring, another prosecutor, added: 'Our indictment alleges a wide-ranging and truly shameful scheme to put profits over the health and well-being of patients trying to manage substance use disorder and opioid dependence.' Indivior fought back against the allegations, issuing an eight-page statement in its defence. 'Put simply, Indivior is not a contributor to the opioid epidemic,' it said. 'Rather, its medicines are a key part of combatting it.' The charges centre on Suboxone, by far the Indivior's most profitable drug, which earned it 680million in sales in 2013 alone. At one stage Suboxone tablets dominated the market for treating opioid addiction in the US, accounting for 85 per cent of sales. But the expiry of the medicine's patent in 2009 raised the prospect of copycat versions being sold by rivals, and Indivior bosses were desperate to delay this, according to American prosecutors. In 2010, the company launched a film version of Suboxone that could be placed under the tongue and dissolved. It then launched a marketing campaign which aimed to persuade doctors to stop prescribing tablets and replace them with the film version. But while Indivior argued the film was safer because it was less likely to be abused and more difficult for children to accidentally use the company 'lacked any scientific evidence' to support this, prosecutors say. It also set up a 'Here to Help' internet and telephone scheme which put patients in touch with doctors who the company 'knew were issuing careless, clinically unwarranted prescriptions' for the medicine. Then in 2012, as rivals were close to launching generic tablets, Indivior announced it would stop selling its own Suboxone tablets completely and told regulators they posed a risk to children who might accidentally eat them. 'In fact, Indivior executives knew the primary reason for the discontinuance was to delay the approval of generic tablet forms of the drug,' prosecutors said. Scandal piles pressure on Reckitt's 101m man Rakesh Kapoor Reckitt Benckiser's shares fell 6.5 per cent as it risked getting dragged into the scandal over sales of opioid addiction treatments by Indivior. The consumer goods giant, which makes Durex condoms, Vanish detergent and Nurofen painkillers, owned Indivior during the period when American prosecutors say it fraudulently marketed its Suboxone product across the US. Reckitt is not named as a defendant in the case. It spun off Indivior in 2014 and the two firms are now completely separate. Rakesh Kapoor took over as chief executive of Reckitt in 2011 and stressed the benefits of Suboxone film in quarterly results calls But charges filed by the US Department of Justice alleged plans to fraudulently market the film version of Suboxone as safer than tablets went back as far as 2009. They say this was done despite a lack of scientific evidence to back the claims up. It is potentially embarrassing for Rakesh Kapoor, who took over as chief executive of Reckitt in 2011 and stressed the benefits of Suboxone film in quarterly results calls. In addition to potentially wiping out Indivior, which faces a 2.3billion fine, analysts warned the charges could also put Reckitt in jeopardy. In a note to investors, UBS analysts pointed to a warning in the company's annual report, which said it was in discussions with the US Department of Justice over Indivior but could not be assured it would reach a settlement. Reckitt has set aside more than 300million for possible charges related to the scandal, but it said: 'The final cost for the company may be substantially higher than this provision.' It is the latest headache for outgoing boss Kapoor, 60, who also faces a possible investor revolt over his pay and lucrative pension payments. He has been paid 101million since taking the helm at Reckitt. One of Britains largest security firms could fall into foreign hands. G4S is being targeted by Canadian rival GardaWorld following a near halving of its share price in less than two years. In a statement to the stock market yesterday, Garda confirmed a report in the Evening Standard that it was looking to buy part or all of G4S. G4S is being targeted by Canadian rival GardaWorld following a near halving of its share price in less than two years Shares in G4S jumped 19.7 per cent, or 36.35p, to 221p its highest level since October last year and valuing it at 3.4billion. The interest from Garda comes after G4S was stripped of a contract to run HMP Birmingham earlier this month following a dramatic rise in drug use and violence within the prisons walls. The scandal follows a series of errors made by the firm, including charging the Government for electronically tagging offenders who were already dead or in jail, losing prisoners in heists on the way to court, and failing to find enough security guards to staff the 2012 Olympic Games in London. G4S still runs four prisons, one young offenders centre and two immigration detention centres in the UK. In a statement, Garda said it was in the preliminary stages of considering a bid for the company. Analysts at Jefferies said an offer for the entirety of G4S seems a stretch given the large amount of debt weighing down both companies. At the end of 2018, G4Ss debt pile was 1.6billion. G4Ss languishing share price over the last several months has made the company look cheaper to predators than at any point since 2016. Before yesterdays sudden jump, the stock had slumped by 26.8 per cent over the last year alone. Just last month G4S reported a 63 per cent drop in 2018 profits to 143million, after it was forced to pay thousands of staff for lost meal and rest breaks. It had to cough up between 100million and 130million to settle the lawsuit in California, which covered 13,500 staff employed between 2001 and 2010. G4S, which employs almost 600,000 staff across 90 countries, said in March it had received interest from potential bidders for its cash business, which transports money by armoured van. But if Garda buys G4S outright, the British company, currently the largest stock market-listed security firm worldwide, will disappear from the FTSE 250. Owned by a group of investors headed by its founder, 55-year-old entrepreneur Stephan Cretier, Garda is one of the worlds biggest privately owned security businesses. Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis said the supermarket's turnaround is close to completion as he unveiled a bumper 29 per cent rise in profits. Britain's biggest grocer rewarded investors by almost doubling its dividend to 5.77p per share after raking in 1.7billion of profits in the year to February 23. Same-store sales rose 1.4 per cent to boost total revenues by 11.2 per cent to 63.9billion. Lewis, who uncovered a 250million accounting scandal at Tesco just two weeks after arriving from Unilever, hailed his turnaround as nearing the end. Profits boost: Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis said the supermarket's turnaround is close to completion as Britain's biggest grocer rewarded investors by almost doubling its dividend 'After four years we have met, or are about to meet, the vast majority of our turnaround goals,' he said. 'I'm very confident that we will complete the journey in 2019/2020. I'm delighted with the broad-based improvement across the business.' The 54-year-old's bullish tone sparked speculation that he could be looking to leave the top job at Tesco. Lewis has been credited with making the supermarket popular among customers again after the fraud and a string of profit warnings shattered its reputation. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, asked: 'Will Dave Lewis ride off into the sunset now he is achieved, in his own words, 'the vast majority' of his turnaround goals?' Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at online trading platform Markets, added: 'Job done: Tesco can confidently say the turnaround under Dave Lewis is as good as complete.' But Lewis denied he was looking to move on from the supermarket, insisting that there was more work to be done. He added that Tesco will outline further plans for its future in June, raising the possibility of a share buyback for investors. 'The job is not done,' Lewis said. 'As a team we're completely committed to what comes next.' Lewis, nicknamed Drastic Dave for his ruthless cost-cutting while at Unilever, implemented a dramatic shake-up when he arrived at Tesco almost five years ago. He has overseen a 3.7billion merger with cash-and-carry firm Booker, carried out the biggest overhaul of Tesco's own-brand range in its 100-year history and launched its own budget supermarket, Jack's, in an effort to take on German discounters Aldi and Lidl. But he has been forced to make difficult decisions in recent months with 9,000 jobs now on the line as part of a major cost-cutting drive. Cuts are expected at Tesco's head office and in stores as it prepares to close deli counters at around 70 of its supermarkets. Lewis said the move was likely to result in around 4,500 redundancies but warned more could be on the way. 'The cuts are a reflection of change in customer behaviour. It's very impactful when we make a change like this. There will be more changes, we'll work them through,' he said. Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Lewis deserved praise for steering Tesco through a difficult period. 'He took over a business that was reeling from the inroads made by Aldi and Lidl into the UK supermarket sector, and one of the first things on his plate was dealing with an accounting blunder,' he said. 'Five years down the road and the supermarket has rebuilt profits and dividends, and gathered consistent sales momentum. It's now in much better shape to deal with the challenges it faces.' Tesco's shares rose 3.6 per cent, or 8.4p, to 242.3p. Sir Philip Green has lost the backing of one of his biggest investors as he embarks on a major-cost cutting drive across his retail empire. US private equity firm Leonard Green has ditched its 25 per cent stake in Topshop, seven years after it splashed out 350million on the investment, which valued the fashion chain at 2billion. Leonard Green snapped up the stake as part of a deal to aid Topshops overseas expansion, which is now likely to be reversed. Troubles: Sir Philip Green has lost the backing of one of his biggest investors - US private equity firm Leonard Green The stake has been sold back to Arcadia for an undisclosed sum. Greens Arcadia group includes Topshop, Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge and Wallis and has 570 stores, hundreds of concessions and 18,000 staff. The sale of the Topshop stake came as Green faced a fresh attack from MP Frank Field, the chairman of the House of Commons pensions committee, over the 550million black hole in the Arcadia retirement fund. Green, 67 is understood to be looking to cut annual payments into the fund from 50million to 25million. But Field accused him of being up to his old tricks following the collapse of BHS with a 571million pension black hole. It went under after Green sold it for 1 to Dominic Chappell. Field said: Sir Philip had proven himself no knight of British retail quite the opposite. Does he really think hes going to get away with his old tricks again? Run the business down, pocket whatever cash is left, stiff the pensioners and sail off on the Lionheart [Greens yacht] leaving employees, pension schemes and his long suffering creditors in the lurch? Not if we have anything to do with it. In an effort to get the business back on track, Green wants to shut stores and cut contributions to Arcadias pension scheme. The Pension Regulator is currently in talks with trustees of Arcadias scheme. Leonard Green confirmed it has sold its stake with its two directors Adam Levyn and Jonathan Sokoloff resigning from Arcadias board. It said it had the opportunity to repurchase its stake in the future. It said: The transfer simplifies the shareholding structure of Topshop/Topman Limited and enables the Arcadia board to focus on the restructuring options. Green is understood to be planning an insolvency procedure called a company voluntary agreement which will allow Arcadia to secure rent reductions and shut stores. Once popular brands, Topshop and Miss Selfridge have been outflanked by internet-only firms such as Asos and Boohoo. Topshop and Topman racked up losses of 10.9million in the year to August 2017, down from profits of 59million a year earlier. The UK's housing market looks set to continue to struggle over the next few months amid the political chaos over Brexit, the country's estate agents warned today. A closely-watched survey compiled by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors revealed that new inquiries from buyers in every part of the country fell for the eighth consecutive month in March. A net balance of 24 per cent of those surveyed saw a fall rather than an increase in house prices last month, suggesting that the market is still faltering as buyers worry about taking on new debt. Embattled: Britain's housing market looks set to continue to struggle over the next few months, the Rics said This points to a 'modest fall' in house prices at the national level over the next couple of quarters, the Rics said. At around 42 per branch, the number of homes on estate agents' books is still at a near record low. In terms of how long properties are taking to sell, it now takes around 19 weeks from listing to completion, which is the joint longest time period since records on this started in 2017, the Rics said. The South East of England continues to show the most protracted selling times, at 21-and a-half weeks on average. Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Rics, said: 'Brexit remains a major drag on activity in the market with anecdotal evidence pointing to potential buyers being reluctant to commit in the face of the heightened sense of uncertainty. 'Whether any deal provides the shift in mood music envisaged by many respondents to the survey remains to be seen but as things stand, there is little encouragement to be drawn from key Rics lead indicators. 'We expect transactions to decline on this basis.' Taking a dip: Many parts of the UK saw property prices fall last month, according to the Rics London and the South East of England continue to display the weakest sentiment regarding property price growth, with Scotland and Northern Ireland the only areas of the UK to have seen sustained price growth on a consistent basis over the last two months. While all this may seem somewhat gloomy, the outlook for the longer term is more upbeat and estate agents expect prices to go up. A balance of 15 per cent more surveyors anticipate house prices will be higher rather than lower in a year's time. Prices are expected to return to growth across most areas over the next year, with Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales leading the way in terms of expectations. London and the South East are the only areas where surveyors expect prices to continue falling over the year ahead. Queries: New potential buyer inquiries fell again last month, the latest Rics survey shows Brian Murphy, head of lending at the Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: 'This mornings report from RICS contains the results of a monthly sentiment based survey of members, rather than being data-led, and therefore provides us with an excellent temperature-check of the current property market across the UK from those at the coalface. 'Whilst the current political uncertainty still casts a shadow over the near-term expectations of the market, it would appear that many surveyors believe that the twelve-month view will bring an improvement. 'As is always the case, sentiment fuels markets and therefore once clarity around the UKs departure from the European Union is reached, a number of RICS members appear to believe that the current market stagnation will ease. 'Back in the current market, however, according to this months report it would appear that landlords are seeing a more positive climate, with average rents increasing across the first quarter of this year, as is to be the expected outcome of fewer currently active investors. 'Meanwhile, mortgages remain highly competitive as many lenders continue to review their pricing in order to tempt new customers onto their books. This is providing those who are currently purchasing with the opportunity to secure a mortgage at or close to historically low rates, therefore helping to support the market in areas which are more active.' Bayhorse Silver Inc., a junior natural resource company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of natural resource properties. It explores for silver, gold, zinc, copper, antimony, and other metals. The company holds a 100% interest in the Bayhorse Silver Mine Property located in Baker County, Oregon. It also holds an option agreement to acquire an 80% interest in the Brandywine project located in British Colombia. The company was formerly known as Kent Exploration Inc. and changed its name to Bayhorse Silver Inc. in December 2013. Bayhorse Silver Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Burnaby, Canada. Read More Rogers Communications Inc. operates as a communications and media company in Canada. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Cable, and Media. The company offers mobile Internet access, wireless voice and enhanced voice, device and accessory financing, wireless home phone, device protection, text messaging, e-mail, global voice and data roaming, bridging landline, machine-to-machine and Internet of Things solutions, and advanced wireless solutions for businesses, as well as device delivery services; and postpaid and prepaid services under the Rogers, Fido, and chatr brands to approximately 10.9 million subscribers. It also provides Internet and WiFi services; smart home monitoring services, such as monitoring, security, automation, energy efficiency, and smart control through a smartphone app. In addition, the company offers local and network TV; on-demand television; cloud-based digital video recorders; voice-activated remote controls, and integrated apps; personal video recorders; linear and time-shifted programming; digital specialty channels; 4K television programming; and televised content on smartphones, tablets, and personal computers, as well as operates Ignite TV and Ignite TV app. Further, it provides residential and small business local telephony services; calling features, such as voicemail, call waiting, and long distance; voice, data networking, Internet protocol, and Ethernet services; private networking, Internet, IP voice, and cloud solutions; optical wave and multi-protocol label switching services; IT and network technologies; and cable access network services. The company also owns Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre event venue; and operates Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet World, Citytv, OMNI, FX (Canada), FXX (Canada), and OLN television networks, as well as 55 AM and FM radio stations. Rogers Communications Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More Medtronic Plc is a medical technology company, which engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of device-based medical therapies and services. It operates through the following segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group; Minimally Invasive Technologies Group; Restorative Therapies Group; and Diabetes Group. The Cardiac and Vascular Group segment consists of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiac rhythm disorders and cardiovascular disease. The Minimally Invasive Technologies Group segment focuses on respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, renal system, lungs, pelvic region, kidneys, and obesity diseases. The Restorative Therapies Group segment comprises of neurostimulation therapies and drug delivery systems for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as areas of the spine and brain, along with pelvic health and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat. The Diabetes Group segment offers insulin pumps, coninuous glucose monitoring systems, and insulin pump consumables. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of BlackRock: Acero Cooperatief U.A., Acero Holdings I B.V., Amethyst Merger Sub LLC, AnalytX Hosting LLC, AnalytX LLC, AnalytX Software LLC, Aperio, Aperio, Aquila Heywood, Asia-Pacific Private Credit Opportunities Fund I (GenPar) Ltd., BAA Holdings LLC, BFM Holdco LLC, BLK (Gallatin) Holdings LLC, BLK SMI LLC, BR Acquisition Mexico S.A. de C.V., BR Jersey International Holdings L.P., Beijing eFront Software Company Limited, BlackRock (Barbados) Finco 1 SRL, BlackRock (Channel Islands) Limited, BlackRock (Luxembourg) S.A., BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V., BlackRock (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock (Singapore) Holdco II Pte. Ltd., BlackRock (Singapore) Holdco Pte. Limited, BlackRock (Singapore) Limited, BlackRock AP Investment Holdco LLC, BlackRock Advisors (UK) Limited, BlackRock Advisors LLC, BlackRock Advisors Singapore Pte. Limited, BlackRock Alternative Advisors GP Holdings LLC, BlackRock Alternatives Management LLC, BlackRock Argentina Asesorias Ltda., BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Deutschland AG, BlackRock Asset Management International Inc., BlackRock Asset Management Investor Services Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Ireland Limited, BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Schweiz AG, BlackRock Asset Management UK Limited, BlackRock Australia Holdco Pty. Ltd., BlackRock Brasil Gestora de Investimentos Ltda., BlackRock Cal 1 Investor LLC, BlackRock Canada Holdings LP, BlackRock Canada Holdings ULC, BlackRock Capital Holdings Inc., BlackRock Capital Investment Advisors LLC, BlackRock Capital Management Inc., BlackRock Cayco Limited, BlackRock Cayman 1 LP, BlackRock Cayman Capital Holdings Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco 2 Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco 3 Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco Limited, BlackRock Cayman West Bay Finco Limited, BlackRock Cayman West Bay IV Limited, BlackRock Cayman Z Limited, BlackRock Channel Islands Holdco Limited, BlackRock Chile Asesorias Limitada, BlackRock Colombia Holdco LLC, BlackRock Colombia Infraestructura S.A.S., BlackRock Colombia SAS, BlackRock Company Secretarial Services (UK) Limited, BlackRock Corporation US Inc., BlackRock Delaware Holdings Inc., BlackRock Enterprise Management Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Europe Development Management Limited, BlackRock Execution Services, BlackRock Finance Europe Limited, BlackRock Financial Management Inc., BlackRock Finco LLC, BlackRock Finco UK Ltd., BlackRock First Partner Limited, BlackRock France SAS, BlackRock Fund Advisors, BlackRock Fund Management Company S.A., BlackRock Fund Managers Limited, BlackRock Funding International Ltd., BlackRock Funds Services Group LLC, BlackRock Germany GmBH, BlackRock Group Limited, BlackRock HK Holdco Limited, BlackRock Holdco 2 Inc., BlackRock Holdco 3 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 4 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 5 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 6 LLC, BlackRock Hungary Kft, BlackRock Index Services LLC, BlackRock Infrastructure Management I LLC, BlackRock Institutional Services Inc., BlackRock Institutional Trust Company National Association, BlackRock International Holdings Inc., BlackRock International Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Dublin) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Korea) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Investment Management (Taiwan) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management Ireland Holdings Limited, BlackRock Investment Management LLC, BlackRock Investments LLC, BlackRock Japan Co. Ltd., BlackRock Japan Holdings GK, BlackRock Jersey Finco 2 Limited, BlackRock Latin America Holdco LLC, BlackRock Latin American Holdings B.V., BlackRock Life Limited, BlackRock Lux Finco S.a r.l., BlackRock Luxembourg Holdco S.a r.l., BlackRock Mexican Holdco B.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura I S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura II S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura III S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager II S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager III S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager S de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Operadora S.A. de C.V. Sociedad Operadora de Fondos de Inversion, BlackRock Mortgage Ventures LLC, BlackRock Niagara LLC, BlackRock Operations (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., BlackRock Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock PC Holdings LLC, BlackRock Pensions Limited, BlackRock Peru Asesorias S.A., BlackRock Property Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Property France S.a.r.l., BlackRock Property Lux S.a.r.l., BlackRock Property Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., BlackRock Realty Advisors Inc., BlackRock Saudi Arabia, BlackRock Scale Holdings LLC, BlackRock Services India Private Limited, BlackRock Singapore III Pte. Ltd., BlackRock Slovakia s.r.o., BlackRock Strategic Investors GP LLC, BlackRock Strategic Investors LP, BlackRock Trident Holding Company Limited, BlackRock UK (Alpha) Limited, BlackRock UK (Beta) Limited, BlackRock UK (Delta) LP, BlackRock UK (Gamma) Limited, BlackRock UK (Sigma) Limited, BlackRock UK 2 LLP, BlackRock UK 3 LLP, BlackRock UK 4 LLP, BlackRock UK A LLP, BlackRock UK Holdco 2 Limited, BlackRock UK Holdco Limited, Blackhawk Investment Holding LLC, CIE Automotive, Cachematrix Holdings, Cachematrix Holdings LLC, Cachematrix Integrations Private Limited, Cachematrix Software Solutions LLC, Cachematrix UK Limited, FutureAdvisor Inc., Glass Mountain Pipeline, Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Advisors LLC, Global Energy & Power Infrastructure II Advisors LLC, Grosvenor Alternate Partner Limited, Grosvenor Ventures Limited, HLX Financial Holdings LLC, MGPA (Bermuda) Limited, MGPA (Exec) Limited, MGPA Limited, Mercury Carry Company Ltd., Mercury Private Equity MUST 3 (Jersey) Limited, Object Capital Technology Inc., Phoenix Acquisition B.V., Phoenix Acquisitions Holdings LLC, Portfolio Administration & Management Ltd., Prestadora de Servicios Integrales BlackRock Mexico S.A. de C.V., SVOF/MM LLC, St. Albans House Nominees (Jersey) Ltd., State Street Research & Management, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, Tlali Acero S.A. de C.V. SOFOM ENR, Trident Merger LLC, eFront, eFront, eFront (Jersey) Limited, eFront DMLT Holdings LLC, eFront DMLT Holdings S.R.L, eFront DR S.R.L, eFront Do Brasil Solucoes Informaticas Para Sistemas Financeiros Ltda., eFront FZ-LLC, eFront Financial Solutions Inc., eFront GmbH, eFront Holding II SAS, eFront Holdings SAS, eFront Hong Kong Limited, eFront II SAS, eFront Kabushiki Kaisha, eFront Ltd, eFront SAS, eFront Singapore Pte. Ltd, eFront Software Luxembourg S.a r.l., eFront Solutions Financeieres Inc., eFront d.o.o. Beograd, iShares (DE) I Investmentaktiengesellschaft mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, and iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC. WEST NORRITON Give high school students and police officers 11 weeks to get to know each other and maybe something promising might come out of it. Thats the philosophy behind the Teen and Police Service (TAPS) Academy program, which strives to reduce the social distance between at-risk youth and law enforcement through learning and interaction, placing teens and law enforcement personnel on equal footing that creates an environment that encourages sharing and problem solving. On Wednesday, the result of that experiment embraced by the Norristown Police Department and Norristown Area High School were clear, when the first 20 TAPS graduates officially earned their certification before an audience gathered in the school library. If the TAPS Creed holds true once again, in nearly three months they had been transformed from at-risk kids to at-promise teens. Eleven weeks ago the students you now see before you began a journey, Captain Richard Clowser, who heads up the TAPS program, told the crowd, following an engaging rendition of the National Anthem by the schools Select Choir. None of us really knew where that journey was going to take us but we had goals a goal to reduce the social distance between at-risk youth and law enforcement in the Norristown area through learning, interaction, discussion and problem solving. As each week passed, relationships were built, Clowser said. Even though there was typically a mad rush for the door at 2:12, they expressed a desire to continue on the following week. As we approached the end of our 11-week journey and considered TAPS a success, the students wanted to continue their dialogue with the police. On hand for the momentous occasion was Dr. Everette Penn, a Professor of Criminology at University of Houston-Clear Lake, who co-founded the TAPS program in 2012 in Texas with 30-year veteran of the Houston Police department, Assistant Chief Brian Lumpkin. Penn told the TAPS graduates that, with membership in the TAPS Club, their participation didnt have to end with graduation. A TAPS Club is continuation. Its saying that for 11 weeks we built this relationship and this doesnt have to be the end of it, Penn said. We can have these folks that have finished TAPS Academy be mentors to other folks, (such as) Stewart Middle School. Penn encouraged the audience to follow TAPS on social media for all the latest developments as the program continues to grow. According to tapsacademy.org, during the 11-week curriculum, TAPS covers specific topic areas such as violence, physical and sexual abuse, stalking, domestic trafficking, sexual exploitation and bullying. The Academy also covers law enforcement-related subject areas that are important to youth, as experts guide the youth and police officers through the topics weekly. TAPS Academy is designed to help youth change behavior, learn responsible decision making, participate in crime prevention projects and reduce the social distance between themselves and law enforcement. Establishing dependable mentors who go through special training and stay fully involved and committed for the entire 11 weeks is a key part of TAPS Academy, which has now been implemented in several cities internationally including: Houston, Texas; Galveston, Texas; La Marque, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Tampa and Miami, Florida; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois, Richmond, Virginia; New York City; Ponce, Puerto Rico; St. Kitts; and the Barbados. After each gradate came up to receive his or her certificate, Norristown Police Chief Mark Talbot told the audience, You have to be the proudest parents in the world right now. Im the proudest police chief in the world. Each one of us is born into a world that assigns points for our success and we dont have any control over that. Some neighborhoods are plus five or minus five points; some genders are plus five or minus five; some races are plus five or minus five; some school systems are plus five or minus five. You dont have any control over that. The world assigns you a certain opportunity and a certain sense of possibility. But on top of that, Talbot added, you have the opportunity to behave in a way that allows you to break out of what the world has provided you, and in that space is the real possibility. What the audience witness that day was a plus side activity, and I couldnt be more proud, Talbot said. Following the ceremony, Clowser privately described what a typical TAPS session would be like. It would start off with the students reciting the TAPS Creed. Then well have a specific topic that were going to talk about for that session, with a 15- or 20-minute presentation by an expert. The officer mentors then go back into their small groups with their four or five students and discuss the topic, he said. A common topic might be truancy, Clowser noted. So what are some of the things why kids are truant, what are some of the messages that we can get out so that students understand that truancy isnt a good thing? In that small group discussion is where the officer mentors and the students formed a relationship. Its a trusting relationship where they get to understand each other. Thats what its all about, reducing the social divide between at-risk students and law enforcement. As they get to know each other better were heading down that path of forming better relationships. Not all of the TAPS students are considered at-risk teens, Clowser pointed out. Some just wanted to interact with us and learn more about being a police officer, he said. Maybe they hold positions within the school in student government and felt that this is something they wanted to participate in and learn more about. For those that are at risk, that can mean a variety of things, Clowser allowed. It could be grades or not showing up for school. We want to help all students in Norristown. Police officers are not there to lock kids up, theyre there to influence them to do the right thing and to help facilitate that, he said. Their willingness to show up each week and spend an hour, an hour and a half, and do a service learning project with us is whats required of the TAPS Academy. And they did that each week, showing up each week, willing to share their ideas and experiences with us. Norristown High senior and TAPS graduate Kenya Prado-Villalvazo, who is headed to Penn State in the fall said she would be taking away a lot from the experience. It was a very good experience and you learn a lot. I feel that some people look at a cop as a bad person but you should understand and know that they are good people, she said. They impacted me and allowed me to have knowledge of what you can do to be a good citizen as well. Maris Groves workplace culture sets the standard in Pennsylvania senior living. Maris Grove, an Erickson Living developed and managed retirement community in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, has been named a 2019 Top Workplace in the Philadelphia Area by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com. This is the fifth consecutive year Maris Grove has received this recognition. Maris Grove is honored to be recognized as a Top Work Place in the Philadelphia area, said Maureen Heckler, executive director of Maris Grove. We are dedicated to creating a work environment where our employees can experience a purposeful career, and their contributions have a meaningful impact on the lives of our residents. Thanks to their dedication, Maris Grove continues to be a great place to live and work. The 2019 Philly.com Top Workplace awards were determined based on feedback received from an employee survey conducted by Energage, LLC. The anonymous survey measures several aspects of workplace culture, including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few. Top Workplaces is more than just recognition, said Doug Claffey, CEO of Energage. Our research shows organizations that earn the award attract better talent, experience lower turnover, and are better equipped to deliver bottom-line results. Their leaders prioritize and carefully craft a healthy workplace culture that supports employee engagement. Maris Grove retirement community employs over 700 full and part-time staff members in fields from administration to health care to culinary services, among many more. The community, home to over 1,600 residents, is dedicated to providing superior resident and employee services. Maris Grove promotes a supportive work environment with a focus on values such as integrity, teamwork, and communication, and provides a comprehensive benefits package with features including access to an on-site employee health and wellness center, tuition assistance and a volunteer support program. For more information about Maris Grove careers, visit www.elmjobs.com. About Maris Grove: Maris Grove, one of 20 continuing care retirement communities developed and managed by Erickson Living(R), is situated on a scenic 87-acre campus in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. The community is located in Delaware County and is home to more than 1,600 residents. Additional information about Maris Grove can be found at MarisGrove.com. Albany With bellies full of beer and more, they spilled out of their apartments into the early-morning street. There, the young scholars smashed car windows, taunted police and otherwise embarrassed themselves. Eight years later, videos of "Kegs and Eggs" anarchy are still on YouTube. I watched some this week watched the students destroy and disrespect the city, watched alcohol-fueled bravado turn a college crowd into an unruly mob. The police were also part of the scene, of course, and I'm happy to say officers mostly acted with admirable restraint and professionalism. They did their best to protect property and control the mayhem on Hudson Avenue. They did not beat anybody up. That's a sharp contrast to the police body-cam videos we've been watching from 523 First St. in West Hill, the ones that show officers breaking up a large, early-morning party with kicks and punches, with disrespect and aggression. Those videos from March 16 have led to assault charges against one officer and the suspension of two others. Are the situations exactly the same? No. But there are similarities. Both Kegs and Eggs and the First Street violence happened on early mornings in mid-March. They occurred about 10 blocks apart. They involved aggressive and unruly crowds, mostly of young men, that taunted police and refused to listen to orders. The mostly white students were handled with more police professionalism than they probably deserved. The black and Hispanic partygoers were treated with hostility, if not brutality. It's more evidence of what has long been obvious: Poor neighborhoods are policed differently. Their residents, mostly black, live under a different standard of justice and are forced to put up with indignities that wouldn't be tolerated elsewhere. In the most troubling of the clips from First Street, Officer Luke Deer pushes Armando Sanchez, 27, in the back, knocking him to the ground. When Sanchez tries to get up, the officer appears to hit him with a baton before beating him in the road. It's an ugly, appalling scene that should bother everybody, black or white, conservative or liberal, rich or poor. (Deer pleaded not guilty to assault and official misconduct charges.) Meanwhile, neighbors say 523 First St. has been a nightmare for them for at least a year. The house, they say, has been operating as an after-hours nightclub, with a bouncer at the front door and a DJ spinning records inside. Police have been to the house dozens of times to break up the parties, and yet, somehow, the problem went unaddressed. Neighbors continued to suffer. It's more evidence that poor neighborhoods are policed differently. As if we needed any. And get this: Sheila Ketter and Michael Korzyk, who live a door down and across the street from the nuisance house, respectively, told me there was another massive party at 523 First on Sunday morning, even after all the attention it has received. Ketter, who is 59, often confronts partygoers who argue outside the home she owns or park in her driveway. She felt forced to do so again on Sunday. "Let me tell you something," she told them. "I have rights." Yes, she does. Will anybody honor them? Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. It is nothing less than a massive police department failure that the problems at 523 First St. went unaddressed for so long. A squad car parked in front of the house might have been all that was needed to end the parties. (Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said Monday that City Hall wasn't made aware of the problems.) The violence captured on the body-cam videos is another police failure. There is no justification for beating people. There is no excuse for brutality, not in West Hill, not in the "student ghetto," not anywhere. Eight years ago, after the embarrassment of Kegs and Eggs, the city launched an aggressive and extensive crackdown on student parties, code violations and other quality-of-life issues in student areas. On the first anniversary of the melee, police even installed temporary towers to light the streets. It isn't always obvious, but the neighborhood where Kegs and Eggs happened is a safer, more peaceful place now. The neighborhood isn't perfect, but it's better. Let's hope similar attention is focused now on neighborhoods such as West Hill, where nuisances are too often allowed to fester. Just ask Ketter, who says 523 First is the only property on the block between Ontario and Quail streets that's causing problems. She votes and pays property taxes, just like folks in wealthier neighborhoods. And yet weekend after weekend, she's been confronting the partygoers who fight outside her window or park in her driveway. Nobody should live that way. "Something can be done," Ketter said Wednesday, standing in her driveway. "Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary." cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill Albany The numbers are startling not a single New York county north of Manhattan saw a gain in working-age population over the past decade. New York isn't alone. A new study by the Economic Innovation Group found that 80 percent of U.S. counties lost working-age adults over the same period. It warns that this loss of population "perpetuates economic decline," and affects everything from housing markets and productivity to a region's dynamism and the pay that less-skilled workers receive. The study also proposes a solution: "heartland visas" targeted to declining regions to bolster their working-age populations. Similar systems, the EIG says, are used with success in Canada and Australia. The study defines the working-age population as those between the ages of 25 and 54. But a broader measure of the workforce, defined as anyone working or actively seeking to work, shows a similar trend. In the five-county Capital Region, the labor force fell nearly 4 percent between 2007 and 2017. Overall population gains during the same time period were strongest in the western and southern United States. Upstate New York saw only a few counties with population gains. The strongest gain came in Saratoga County, according to the EIG study. The news isn't all bad for the Capital Region. It already attracts a disproportionate number of foreign-born workers who hold at least a bachelor's degree. It's also part of a concentration of Northeast counties where the overall population is highly educated. Most of those counties are in an area stretching from New England south to Washington, D.C. Still, those factors haven't been able to reverse the shrinking labor force. And while the prime working populations of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties all are categorized in the study as "slowly shrinking," Schoharie, Warren and Columbia counties all are categorized as "quickly shrinking." Schoharie is part of the five-county Albany metropolitan area, while Warren and Columbia counties border it. Adam Ozimek, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics and one of the study's authors, said the higher educational attainment could be an advantage. Because skilled immigrants are more likely to settle in areas that are already thriving, "that should help make it less of a problem," he said. Could a "place-based" visa program targeting skilled immigrants help reverse the decline? The study's authors believe it could. It would address the problem of supply; even if lower-skilled workers received vocational training, they wouldn't change the long-term trend of declining population. And skilled immigrants would increase the demand for housing while contributing to such programs as Social Security as well as to tax revenues. The program would be voluntary; immigrants would commit to living in targeted areas, and geographic regions would have to opt in. How long would immigrants be committed to living in one place? "What we propose in the paper is something akin to the H-1B program two three-year terms which would give you six years, enough time" to put down roots in the community, said John Lettieri, president and CEO of EIG and also an author of the study. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Immigrants also are entrepreneurial, a study by The New American Economy found. In the Capital Region, nearly 3,000 immigrants were entrepreneurs. Nationwide, one in four entrepreneurs is an immigrant, the EIG study found. Economic Innovation Group How likely is enacting such a program? "Certainly there are some challenging politics around immigration reform," said Lettieri. But "everyone agrees the current system is broken," and there's broad bipartisan support to find solutions. The responses to the EIG study have been "overwhelmingly positive both from policymakers in Washington and from officials" in the heartland, Lettieri added. "There will eventually be a breakthrough," he said. "This idea and ideas like it are part" of the solutions being proposed. Many communities already are seeking to attract immigrants, Lettieri said. "They're just not getting any help from Washington." "Within the faster growing regions," added Ozimek, "the places growing fastest are those with the most immigrants." General Electric will not be required to restart dredging of the Hudson River after the Environmental Protection Agency found the company's seven-year, $1.7 billion cleanup of PCBs in the river satisfied a 2002 agreement between the two, the federal agency said Thursday. Shortly after the announcement, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James unveiled plans to sue the EPA, saying the agency's decision to issue GE a "Certification of the Completion of Remedial Action" is "contrary to the law and could make it much harder for EPA to require GE to implement more dredging or other remedial measures in the upper Hudson River." A nearly 300-page study published in December by the state Department of Environmental Conservation found that "the cleanup of contamination in the upper Hudson River is incomplete and not protective of public health and the environment." But the EPA found that GE's river dredging was "very successful in removing the contaminated sediments" and that there "are no areas that would be characterized as 'hot spots'" of contamination in the upper Hudson. "We take this effort seriously," said EPA Regional Administrator Peter Lopez, a former assemblyman from Schoharie County. "No person or organization will be let off the hook for the contamination of this historic and valuable waterway." The certification the EPA granted to GE does not cover the required operation, maintenance and monitoring phase of the cleanup that follows dredging. The "remedial action" refers only to the "dredging, capping, habitat restoration, and deconstruction/decontamination of the sediment processing facility," that GE ran from 2009 to 2016, according to the EPA. "Far from declaring the job done, we will continue to move forward with the important work to continue to address PCBs in the Hudson River," said Walter Mugdan, EPA deputy regional administrator. GE dredged PCB-tainted sediments from about 40 miles of river bottom from Fort Edward to Troy after years of resisting the work and calling it unnecessary. That amounted to about 310,000 pounds of the tainted sediment, or 72 percent of what is now known to be in the river. Ned Sullivan, president of Poughkeepsie-based Scenic Hudson, said DEC data has found that there is 40 percent more PCB contaminates in the Hudson after the cleanup than was expected which amounts to 15 tons of PCB-contaminated sediment left, he said. As part of the certification of completion, the EPA also granted GE a "Covenant Not to Sue" the company again for cleanup of PCB contamination in sediments in the upper Hudson. The covenant, according to the EPA, does not preclude GE from performing "additional work in the upper Hudson, including potentially more dredging, if EPA deems the remedy is not protective of human health or the environment." The EPA said it would need more time and data to determine how effective GE's cleanup in the upper Hudson was when it comes to contaminated fish tissue. The agency said it needs more post-dredging fish data to come to a conclusion adding that it could take eight years or longer to establish a trend of PCB levels in fish tissue, according to the EPA. Mudgan said the EPA will continue monitoring water quality, sediment and fish data "indefinitely into the future", and the agency will trigger a "reopener" provision that will compel GE to continue dredging or perform other remedial work if "at any time along the way, we conclude that based on some new data we've received ... (the) remedy is not performing as intended, or we're not achieving results in the time frames we'd hope." The EPA said it would continue monitoring "areas of interest" that have slightly-elevated PCB levels, and also said it was assessing how to mitigate contamination in the floodplains and some landlocked segments of the Champlain Canal, as well as from the dam in Troy to the mouth of the New York City harbor. But the DEC is calling on the EPA to compel GE to determine if another round of sediment remediation is needed, and also to investigate PCB concentrations in the lower Hudson. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "EPA is obligated to direct GE to meet the cleanup goals set when the dredging remedy was selected. The federal government's failure to protect New York's environment and New Yorkers is unacceptable," DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement. "EPA is failing in its mission to protect our environment." Democratic Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy called the issuance of the certification to GE "premature and unwarranted," while U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said the EPA chose to "certify an incomplete job by a company that spent decades dumping a poisonous chemical into the Hudson River." But Lopez said that disconnect stems from a misunderstanding that the issuance of the certification to GE means GE is off the hook. "We told GE to engage in certain remedial activities," Lopez said. "The strict legal interpretation is that, if they performed the activities ... we are obligated legally bound to issue the certification." Lopez said that claims the EPA is not currently monitoring the lower Hudson or doesn't want to protect the river are false, and a result of political theater. "Sometimes, in these venues, there's a tendency to exaggerate, or to be little more theatrical," Lopez said. "We want to be theatrical, we'll puff ourselves up, say things that are obvious, make them our own, when actually, that's already happening." "'Protect the river we agree. Make sure the remedy is protective we agree," Lopez said. But Scenic Hudson's Sullivan said the EPA is "reading very narrowly one provision of their consent decree with GE," and the agency is not taking into account that "all cleanups must achieve the goal of being protective to human health and the environment. "EPA cannot say that the cleanup has met that standard," he said. "EPA just can't get it right," Sullivan said. "So we are hoping ... litigation initiated by the governor and attorney general will force EPA to revisit their finding that the cleanup work is complete, and order GE to do additional (cleaning)." In a statement, GE said it "met all of its commitments" and would "continue to collect environmental data to assess ongoing improvements in river conditions and to work closely with EPA, New York State, and local communities on other Hudson environmental projects." Washington Friendly's, the purveyor of sweet treats in its roadside restaurants for more than 80 years, showed its unfriendly side through abrupt closings across the Northeast 14 in upstate New York with little or no notice to workers. Workers reported to the office of Sen. Charles Schumer that many arrived at their particular Friendly's within the past week only to be told the venues were closing for good. Those closed in New York included locations in Syracuse, Endicott, Binghamton, Oneonta, Oswego and Jamestown. Locations in the Capital Region including Saratoga Springs, Troy and Clifton Park remain open. Both New York and the federal government have WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Acts that require employers to give workers adequate notice that their jobs were about to be lost. Schumer on Wednesday told reporters he had sent a letter to the Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta asking for an investigation into whether the Friendly's closings violated federal law. "This is an example of what's wrong with major corporations (that) think workers are fungible," Schumer said on a conference call. "It's not fair and we have to fight back. If Friendly's violated law, the Department of Labor has to throw the book at them." Under federal law dating back to 1989, employers with 100 or more workers must give 60-days notice of intent to close a worksite. But the state's law extends that to employers with 50 workers or more, and requires 90-days' notice. State law punishes infractions through a civil penalty of $500 per day of violation. Schumer said most Friendly's appear to have between 30 and 60 employees, and it was not clear whether the Massachusetts-based company has taken advantage of loopholes in the law. If so, at least at the federal level, Schumer said he would work to close the gaps. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "In a free-market system, they have the right to close stores," Schumer said. "But they have to treat workers with honor and dignity." Friendly's, which started in Springfield, Mass., with a single store in 1935, has become a go-to place for families consuming their rich ice cream, milk shakes and other menu items. Schumer himself said he was a devotee of the Fribble, a specialty milkshake. He makes stops at Friendly's while on his upstate tours in warmer weather. "But what went down at these restaurants is anything but friendly for workers," he said. "It is inhumane, cruel and it shows some of these corporations don't care about their workers. Anyone of us could be in that situation. It's not fair at all." dan@hearstdc.com The social engagement and lively discussion of a book club are pleasures many people engage in, but sometimes reading an entire novel or nonfiction book before the next club meeting can induce anxiety and stress and remove some of the enjoyment. Oh, and you can't eat what you have learned from a novel. That's where cookbook clubs come in. Around the Capital Region, bibliophiles and food enthusiasts have found a way to merge their interests by attending cookbook club meetings at local libraries and businesses. Instead of reading prose, club members work from a selected cookbook to test recipes and share the results of that labor with the group. Samantha Fagan, co-owner of Culinary Square kitchen supply store in Troy, holds a vote among her store's cookbook club members to select a book for the next month's meeting. For the April 25 meeting, she has made photocopies of recipes from "Everyday Dorie," by Dorie Greenspan for attendees to attempt. She registers the recipes as people claim them, so there is no duplication, and partners with Market Block Books, also in Troy, to offer the book at a discount for club members. Fagan, who holds a master's degree in library and information sciences, said the club allows her to build her business while incorporating her library background. The cookbook club also allows attendees to forgo hours of reading and prepare for meetings in an afternoon. "I think it's more hands-on [than a traditional book club] and technically doesn't require the same amount of time to read," she said. "Life is busy. It's hard to incorporate more stuff into it," said Daniel Berman, the Capital Region Yelp community ambassador and author of Fussy Little Blog. Like Fagan, Berman finds the benefit of a cookbook club is found in the reduced time it takes for preparation while still providing all the social benefit of a traditional book club. Berman attends Guilderland Public Library's monthly cookbook club meeting with his 10-year-old daughter, who loves to bake and the television show, "The Great British Baking Show." When they were visiting the library one day, a staffer mentioned the inaugural cookbook club meeting focused on the show's companion cookbook, and they quickly signed up to attend. "This has become a father-daughter experience" he said. They go to the library together, sift through the recipes, request a photocopy of the recipe they want to make and create the recipe together. Other libraries offer cookbook clubs in their programming, too. The Malta branch of Round Lake Public Library has an active club as does East Greenbush's library. Instead of choosing one book for the month, Marion Pierson, the head of the circulation department at East Greenbush, said that a theme is chosen. Pierson displays a variety of books that can be checked out by patrons that fit within the theme (April's theme: "It's a wrap") and people gather on the third Thursday of each month to share what they have made and discuss the theme and ideas in cooking. "Everyone is welcome, but no one is obligated to cook," said Pierson. The idea to start the cookbook club in 2017 came from a community survey that indicated library patrons wanted creative and maker-type programming. While the club has mainly attracted avid cooks, Pierson said some of the 10 to 25 people who attend monthly are "people who don't cook much and want to learn more." Eric Fletcher, the founder of Albany Food Readers, said there was no book club focusing on the kind of food system and agriculture issues and chef memoirs he was interested in. "I decided I'm going to have to do this on my own," he said, and in 2016 he formed a Facebook group, and later a MeetUp.com group, to find like-minded readers. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The first Albany Food Readers meeting happened at Honest Weight Food Co-Op in Albany and focused on "The New Bread Basket," by local grains expert and writer Amy Halloran. Halloran joined the group to facilitate the discussion and make pancakes, and subsequent gatherings have included authors or local experts who can speak topics dealt with in selected books. Fletcher said that one member of the group was a culinary student at Schenectady County Community College and told him she was thankful for the group because it provided contextual readings of what she was learning in culinary school. Comments like that convinced Fletcher that what was happening with Albany Food Readers could benefit food enthusiasts and readers in other locations. "I thought I've succeeded in growing the book club in Albany so I should package what I've learned and share it with other people. As far as I can tell I'm the only one in the world doing this. It's a very specific sect." So far, groups in Tompkins County and New Jersey are forming as a result of Fletcher's expanded Food Readers Organization efforts. Online, there are cookbook club programs through popular cooking websites like Food52, Tasting Table and Saveur. Fletcher argued against these types of groups. "There's nothing worse to me than an online book club," he said, adding, "the whole point is to bring people together. I'm a huge supporter of technology but book clubs are supposed to be in person. I don't feel you get the same level of connection and impact behind a screen." The connection of a book club extends beyond the interpersonal, as Berman has found. By taking part in a book club, readers get the chance to explore various ideas from around the world and be transported in their mind, just as they would in a novel or nonfiction tome. The added benefit of sensory experience in smell, taste and touch makes a book a more visceral object, and helps connect people through their minds and stomachs. As Berman said, "it's one thing to flip through the pages, it's another thing to taste the results." Deanna Fox is a food and agriculture journalist. @DeannaNFox, foxonfood.com SAND LAKE A questionnaire sent to a small rural church's parishioners asking whether to use sexual orientation, race or disability status to rule out candidates for pastor has caused an unexpected blow back, a member of the pastoral search committee said Wednesday. After going nearly three years without a permanent pastor, Zions United Church of Christ of Taborton leaders felt they needed to push to get the congregation behind the selection of a new pastor, explained Marvin Bubie. At a recent meeting with a representative from the United Church of Christ New York Conference from Syracuse, he said, they were advised they should ensure the congregation, which draws 30 to 40 worshipers to the historic church on Sundays, would be united in welcoming a new minister. Some people called us back furious about the questionnaire, Bubie said. The questions that upset the parishioners were as follows: Are there any groups we should exclude? "Should we exclude all LGBTQ candidates?" "Should we exclude candidates of color?" "Should we exclude candidates with a disability?" Following those questions, which required yes or no answer, was one fill-in-the-blank question: "Are there any other groups we should exclude?" Zion congregation members also were not happy, Bubie said, with an introductory note that said, There is no law prohibiting any church from discriminating as a corporation would. So far, the seven-member search committee has received 40 questionnaires back with 38 of them opposed to making any exclusions, said Bubie. While the church is in a conservative Rensselaer County community, Bubie said its members are welcoming. He said the church reflected the openness of the national United Church of Christ. Bubie said the search committee was not seeking to be discriminatory. He said the goal was to get church members to ultimately support the new pastor no matter who is selected. We may have made this thing a little blatant. It got people riled. Theres some people that are really ticked off, Bubie said. Zions leadership discussed the questionnaire at a Tuesday night meeting. We would soften it considerably, Bubie said if the questionnaire were to be redone. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. We kind of feel like its an emergency to get a new pastor, Bubie said about the current situation, where the church relies on a different minister leading services on a nearly weekly basis. The remaining 20 to 30 members of the church have until April 21, Easter Sunday, to return their questionnaires, Bubie said. The church, which was founded by German immigrants in 1852, has been without a permanent pastor since Rev. Robert Loesch retired after leading the congregation for a decade. Loesch joined the church in 2008. Zion has had a gay pastor during the last 30 years, Bubie said. He added that Loesch celebrated a marriage for two gay men at the church. Zion's search committee will receive resumes of potential pastors from the UCC New York Conference and interview them, Bubie said. The UCC reports that as of fall 2018 it has 853,778 members in 4,956 churches nationwide. The average church membership is 174 people with average Sunday attendance of 69 people. EAST GREENBUSH The debate over a $70 million natural gas pipeline National Grid wants to build pitted environmentalists against a builders group at a public hearing Wednesday held by the state Public Service Commission. The allied groups Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline and Community Advocates for a Sustainable Environment said the state shouldnt approve the proposed 7.3-mile natural gas pipeline and called for alternative energy sources to be developed. If you continue to build fossil fuel infrastructure theres no incentive to find alternatives, said Becky Meier of CASE and SNYFGP. For the Capital Region Builders and Remodelers Association, natural gas supplies are a major element for housing. Outside the hearing, the laborers union had a video board truck supporting the Pipeline E37 Reliability and Resiliency Project. Natural gas is a key factor in our building new home communities, said Michele Brown of Belmonte Builders and immediate past president of the CRBRA. National Grid says the pipeline is needed to improve service and reliability as it works to meet a one percent annual growth in demand for natural gas. The utility has proposed to build the 7.3 miles of pipeline from the town of Bethlehem in Albany County, crossing the Hudson River to continue in Rensselaer County through the town of East Greenbush and end in the town of North Greenbush. It would connect two existing pipelines. The PSC held afternoon and evening hearings on the project Wednesday at the Red Barn in the East Greenbush Town Park. CASE leaders said there was not enough public notification given about the hearings. Meier and Bob Connors said the organization will request more time from the PSC so that the group can conduct more in-depth research than has been done since it learned of the pipeline through legal ads about two weeks ago. Frank Coppa of East Greenbush urged the PSC to extend the review of the pipeline. Coppa said, This project deserves more study. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Bob Connors of CASE and SNYFGP said more time is needed to study the project. He said the environmental groups only had a few weeks to prepare for the hearings. George Riley of Laborers Local 190 said he had worked on previous gas lines and praised the safety of those projects. Chelsea Zantay of Averill Park questioned the pipeline crossing the Hudson River as a potential hazard. Speaking about the river, Zantay said, Its a source pride in New York that we brought it back from the brink of disaster. National Grid is seeking to gain PSC approval to start construction this year. It estimates the project would be finished in 2022. NORTH GREENBUSH Town officials are planning to hire an in-house engineer to end speculation the building department coordinator a builder himself is compromised. The Town Board is scheduled Thursday to discuss hiring an engineer who would work part-time reviewing development proposals that come before the town. Currently, Laberge Group is contracted to review some plans. But building coordinator and inspector Michael Miner, who is also listed in the town's planning board minutes as "acting town engineer," is not an engineer. Deputy Supervisor Joe Bott said it will be less expensive to employ an in-house engineer. But mostly, Bott said, town officials have wanted to have an engineer at Town Hall to quell concerns about the building department being run by Miner, who is an active builder in town. The engineer candidate also has a private business. But town officials say he has assured them he will not be doing business in North Greenbush. The issue with Miner was brought to the forefront last May after a Times Union story detailed problems facing local code enforcement offices, which included Miner's dual employment as a home builder and the town inspector. Miner has said previous town supervisors and attorneys never expressed concerns about his outside business. "Our ultimate goal is to make sure this goes away so that people don't think Mike is having favors done for him and vice versa," said Bott, a town board member who is also the Republican candidate for supervisor. Last month, the town's Ethics Board also provided an advisory opinion to town board members that recommends Miner's underlings in the building department no longer inspect homes built by Miner's company. Miner has previously said he would pay for outside inspectors at his construction projects. Bott said the Town Board still needs to discuss the Ethics Board's opinion. "I'm eager for them to have a policy in place that takes away any questions," Miner said Thursday. Republican Supervisor Louis Desso is not running for re-election amid questions about his own ethical behavior. Late last year, the town and Rensselaer County were served with subpoenas from the state attorney general's Public Integrity Bureau looking for records in relation to a sewer line extension that was built to Desso's property on Stephen Drive. Miner, as building inspector, had to oversee construction of the supervisor's sewer line, which was put in by a childhood friend of Desso's, Charles "JR" Casale. Casale also had a development proposal before the town at the same time. Desso has maintained he paid Casale for the work. Miner himself is in the middle of questions about why Route 4 developer David Mulinio was allowed to fill in a deep ravine with a stream without getting the proper permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps shut down the project last month, saying Mulinio filled in two streams without permits in violation of the Clean Water Act. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Mulinio has said his engineer, who passed away last September, was responsible for determining if any approvals were necessary from the Army Corps. Mulinio, a friend of the supervisor's, provided free fill at Desso's property last summer. Planning Board Chairman Mark Lacivita, who has been on the board for almost three decades, told the Times Union Wednesday it was Miner's job to get a letter from the Army Corps affirming that the project could go forward without a permit. Last year, Miner told the Planning Board that it wasn't necessary to hire Laberge to review the Route 4 plans that he would be responsible for overseeing the project. Miner said Thursday that Lacivita is perhaps unfamiliar with the process stating it is the applicant's job, not the building department's job, to ensure the project has the necessary federal or state permits. The building coordinator also said Laberge didn't need to review the Route 4 project yet because it was only approved for filing, not construction. Miner also has a proposed housing development before the Planning Board and Mulinio and Miner had the same engineering firm represent their projects at a meeting last September. Miner said the two only shared the same engineering firm for that one meeting; he now has a different firm for his North Road housing project. While the Planning Board chairman said it was surprising to him that Miner didn't discover the problem with the Route 4 project, Lacivita said he is confident Miner is performing his duties ethically. "Mike has demonstrated his ability to do his job and do what the town board has allowed him to do," Lacivita said. "I have no reason to doubt Mike's professionalism." ALBANY A physician who branded multiple women with the initials of Keith Raniere and television actress Allison Mack is the target of an investigation in which state officials have quietly waged a court battle to compel eight people associated with NXIVM to testify. The Health Department's efforts are outlined in a state Supreme Court case filed last year against eight "Jane Does" who allegedly were involved in or had knowledge of the secret branding ceremonies. The court case confirms that Dr. Danielle D. Roberts, 37, an osteopath and former Clifton Park resident who had been associated with NXIVM, is being investigated for "allegations of professional medical misconduct." The state Health Department's Office of Professional Medical Conduct served subpoenas on the women in January 2018, setting off a 10-month legal battle. Attorneys for the NXIVM associates, including Lauren Salzman, who is the daughter of NXIVM President Nancy Salzman, tried unsuccessfully to convince a judge to revoke the subpoenas. Lauren and Nancy Salzman, along with Mack, each pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges over the past month in a racketeering prosecution that remains ongoing against Raniere and two other NXIVM associates: Clare Bronfman, an heiress of the Seagram Co. business empire, and Kathy Russell, a longtime bookkeeper for NIXVM. Mack and Lauren Salzman both admitted to helping enroll NXIVM followers into what was purported to be an all-female "slave-master" club, where many of the women were coerced into being branded. Some of them also were allegedly manipulated to have sex with Raniere. The federal criminal case has laid bare Raniere's secretive efforts to recruit and control women in his cloistered organization, but questions have lingered about Roberts' role in using a cauterizing pen to brand nearly two dozen women during ritualistic ceremonies. Many of the female participants said they wore blindfolds and had been held down by others to help them complete the excruciating procedure. "The complaint alleged that the subject physician participated in an initiation ceremony for a secret society, which involved the branding of female initiates with a cautery pen without anesthesia and under duress," states a court order issued last September that authorized the Health Department's investigation to go forward. The charges against Roberts that are being considered by the Health Department include allegations that she practiced medicine with negligence on more than one occasion; practiced on one occasion with gross negligence; is morally unfit to practice medicine; and failed to use scientifically accepted precautions and infection-control practices during the branding procedures. The investigation of Roberts has been slowed by the federal criminal prosecution of NXIVM's leaders, including charges related to the secret club that conducted the branding ceremonies, sources said. Hector J. Diaz, an Arizona attorney, is representing Lauren Salzman in her federal criminal case and also is listed as an attorney for one of the "Jane Doe" witnesses in the Health Department's investigation of Roberts. Michael S. Kelton, a New York City attorney who specializes in medical malpractice, represented the remaining seven "Jane Doe" witnesses in the case, according to court records. The attorneys argued in court filings that "body scarification" is not a form of practicing medicine and therefore the Health Department had no authority to compel the women who are private citizens and not physicians to respond to the subpoenas. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Kimberly A. O'Connor ruled last September that state Education Law gives the Health Department "wide latitude" in determining whether a procedure like branding is within the scope of practicing medicine. "Additionally, courts have recognized that physicians performing certain procedures that can also be performed by a layperson are held to the standards applicable to a physician," O'Connor wrote. The once-secret branding ceremonies, which took place in a Halfmoon neighborhood, were initially brushed off by the Health Department after it received a formal complaint in 2017 from a Canadian woman who had been branded. But the agency's probe was revived after published reports drew attention to the branding. The 2017 complaint filed by Sarah Edmondson of Vancouver, a longtime NXIVM associate, said that at least 20 women associated with the Colonie-based organization were lured into the club and allegedly coerced into being branded in their pubic area. Members of the club, called Dominus Obsequious Sororium (which means "Master Over the Slave Women"), were required to provide some sort of damaging "collateral," such as a nude photo or a dark revelation from their past, as part of their initiation, Edmonson said. Edmondson and another woman involved with NXIVM told the Times Union in 2017 that they were brought into the club and subsequently branded by Roberts, who then gave them special bandages and advice on helping the wounds heal. Edmondson had said she was told it would be a "tattoo" and that she only learned weeks later that the brand, which she was told was a Latin symbol for "the elements," was actually the initials of Raniere and Mack, whom Edmondson's complaint identified as having "started" the secret women's group with Raniere. After the branding ceremonies were publicized, state Health Department officials said they were researching what regulations might govern human branding. In July 2017, though, they initially dismissed Edmondson's complaint, saying the allegations "did not occur with the doctor-patient relationship and should be reported to law enforcement ...." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Edmondson was associated with NXIVM for 12 years, but left the organization in June 2017 after she learned the brand that she received was really the initials of Mack and Raniere. Roberts had worked at St. Peter's Hospital from 2012 to 2015 through an employment agency. It's unclear whether she continues to practice medicine, but is often featured at seminars promoting health and wellness programs. In a related case, the Health Department has filed disciplinary charges against Dr. Brandon B. Porter, a physician for NXIVM who conducted human brain-activity experiments on people associated with the organization. The state attorney general's office last year suspended its investigation of a nonprofit foundation associated with NXIVM that had sponsored the brain-activity and other human behavioral studies without any apparent oversight, according to court records. The nonprofit Ethical Science Foundation was formed in 2007 by Bronfman, who has described herself as the operations director of NXIVM. The Times Union reported in October 2017 that NXIVM's leaders had recruited participants who took part in unsanctioned brain activity studies and other human experiment studies conducted by Porter. The Health Department's disciplinary case against Porter remains pending. Kelton, the attorney for both Porter and Roberts, on Thursday said he had "no comment to make with respect to either physician." Diaz, the attorney for Lauren Salzman, did not respond to a request for comment. Porter abruptly resigned from his job at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany in 2017 after his role in the human brain studies became public. NXIVM had acknowledged it conducted human research studies, including for treatment of Tourette syndrome, although the studies were apparently never published or peer-reviewed. The state Health Department initially brushed off a complaint filed in August 2017 by another Vancouver woman who was associated with NXIVM. Jennifer Kobelt, then 28, said she was traumatized by a bizarre experiment in which Porter showed her videos depicting graphic violence in August 2016. The experiment she was subjected to took place in a small commercial building in Halfmoon that had been used for years by NXIVM for training and seminars. Kobelt said she was recruited for the study by an assistant of Nancy Salzman, and that she knew of at least four other women who took part. Kobelt said she was not told what the study was for or what would take place, and that she was not asked to sign any documents indicating she had been informed what the study was about and consented to take part. Porter drove Kobelt to the building that day, she said, hooked her up to an EEG machine that monitors brain activity and showed her terrifying images and videos of murder, rape and mutilation. Pounding noises kept coming from the bathroom in a suburban home outside Portland, Oregon. Cops had surrounded the door, and a trained canine panted nearby. The officers unholstered their guns, shouted that they were police and demanded that the burglary suspect holed up inside let them in. No response. Just more banging. Probably, the police decided, the intruder was trying to force open a window to run away. All at once, the cops burst in, ready to fire. Then, they saw it: a little Roomba robot vacuum, stuck in a corner and slamming repeatedly into the shower door. The deputies convulsed. And one of America's first brushes with robot-versus-law enforcement conflict, thankfully, ended without violence. "There was just immediate laughter," Sgt. Danny DiPietro, a spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff's Office, said in an interview with The Washington Post. "They didn't know what was going to happen. They're ready for anything and then it was like, 'Whoa, what? What's going on here? Am I being pranked?'" In fact, the call for assistance was no joke. Two men dialed 911 at 1:48 p.m. on Monday, the sheriff's office said on Facebook, to report that someone had broken into a home in the Cedar Hills neighborhood just outside Beaverton, Oregon, about seven miles west of downtown Portland. The intruder was locked in the bathroom, the caller said, adding that he could see shadows moving under the door. A detective happened to be nearby and rushed to the scene. Within minutes, he was met by three other deputies from the sheriff's office and two canine officers from Beaverton's police force, DiPietro said. They soon learned the full story from the worried callers. "There were two gentlemen house sitting for their nephew, who is an adult. They go out to walk the dog and when they come back, they hear something in the bathroom," DiPietro said. "The door is shut and locked, and they believe someone is in there. So they called the police, like anyone would." The officers on the scene didn't take any chances. They loudly announced their presence, warning the intruder that they'd been caught in the act, and then sent in one of the trained police dogs. Whoever was inside wouldn't surrender. When the cops came into the house, they could hear "rustling" in the bathroom, Deputy Brian Rogers wrote in a note recounting the incident. That's when they surrounded the bathroom, ready for the worst. Whoever was inside wasn't just ignoring police orders, they were making a commotion as they presumably plotted an escape. "One hundred percent, they had their guns out and the dogs out," DiPietro said. "If we tell you we're the police and you're not responding and not coming out, we don't know what we're walking into. We don't know if they're armed or if they're going to attack us." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Only after rushing the room and then collapsing into a fit of laughter did the deputies work out what had happened. "We breached the bathroom door and encountered a very thorough vacuuming job being done by a Roomba Robotic Vacuum cleaner," Rogers wrote. The two men, who were hugely apologetic, had no idea their nephew owned a Roomba. After the department gleefully recounted the saga on its Facebook page under a faux "Most Wanted" poster featuring a Roomba, hundreds of commenters jumped in to laugh at the callers' plight. But DiPietro defended the would-be robot vacuum burglary victims. "They were definitely embarrassed, but our deputies told them, 'Hey, we believed it was an intruder, too,'" DiPietro said. "These people were house sitting. They didn't know this vacuum was going to kick on and go and do this. . . . These people were in a unique circumstance." The foiled robot robbery will long be retold around the Washington County Sheriff's Office, DiPietro said. "Every call is unique, and this was a fun one," he said. "There are a lot of parts of our job that can be not the best. This is one that is going to stick in your mind for a long time for a good reason." ALBANY Local public authorities empowered to issue tax breaks and hand out grants are the focus of a new review by a state Senate committee. Sen. James Skoufis, an Orange County Democrat who leads the chamber's investigations committee, recently solicited information from about 60 authorities across the state to judge compliance with the state's transparency and oversight laws. A February report from the state's Authorities Budget Office found that dozens of authorities all over New York failed to file at least one of their required financial reports. Skoufis said the probe is warranted because authorities are dealing with public money, and he believes there isn't enough accountability in place to ensure they're being good stewards. "It's like the Wild West in parts of the state," he said. In response to the investigation first disclosed by Newsday the organization representing many industrial development agencies and economic development organizations said it looks forward to working with Skoufis to address any concerns he might have. "We understand the senator has some questions and concerns about public authorities and the work they do," the New York State Economic Development Council said in a statement. The examination is welcomed by fiscal watchdogs, who have been pushing for local economic development subsidies to be subject to greater transparency and questioned the efficacy of the entities' investments. In the Capital Region, information was requested from the industrial development agencies for Albany County, Cohoes, Colonie, Guilderland, Glens Falls, Saratoga County and Troy, as well as the Schenectady Urban Renewal Agency and the Albany Parking Authority. The sampling of authorities is supposed to be representative of the statewide landscape. The vast majority of authorities that were contacted provided responses before they were due last Friday. Skoufis said the information will help determine if existing laws are being followed, and whether new laws are needed. This past week, the Legislature approved a measure designed to foster the public distribution of video recordings of industrial development agency meetings and hearings. The legislation also requires for proceedings to be streamed live on the internet whenever practicable. That measure is awaiting the signature of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Last month, Skoufis and Sen. Shelley Mayer, a Westchester County Democrat, introduced legislation designed to curb tax breaks and create greater oversight of local industrial development agencies. Their proposals include banning IDAs from giving incentives to projects that are already under construction or in which the developer is not identified. The legislation would also require school districts to be involved in payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements, and close a loophole that allows an IDA to lure a project away from another local IDA. The legislation is in part a response to a project in Orange County receiving tax breaks after construction already began. Multiple Capital Region IDA projects would be subject to the limitations outlined in the legislative proposals. In 2017, Rensselaer County's IDA gave Cole's Collision Center a PILOT agreement even though construction had already started at the site on Route 4. The county said Cole's had put in its application for tax incentives before the project, but the IDA board had been delinquent in holding a meeting to consider the tax breaks. The legislation also calls for a member from organized labor to serve on IDA boards, and restricts elected officials from serving on those boards. Additional reporting by Lauren Stanforth. ALBANY A federal lawsuit alleging that four state employees failed to prevent a 27-year-old woman with severe developmental disabilities from being raped in a Troy group home is headed to trial on May 6, according to court documents filed last week. The lawsuit names the McChesney House director, the assistant director, treatment team leader and night staff, saying they were indifferent to complaints from the woman identified in the court papers as A.B. that a male resident, R.V., had entered her room at night and urinated on her bed in the days leading up to the rape, which is alleged to have occurred on April 26, 2012. The documents indicate that investigations by the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Department and the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, which oversees the home, substantiated A.B.'s rape allegation. Rensselaer County Sheriff Patrick Russo did not respond to a request for comment. Medical exams revealed signs of rape and semen with the DNA of the male resident, according to the complaint. A.B., who died in 2016 from unrelated causes, had the mental capacity of a child and could not consent to sex, according to court papers. A.B.'s mother, the guardian and administrator of her daughter's estate, is the plaintiff in the litigation. Undisclosed damages are being sought. Following the alleged rape, a motion detector was installed on A.B.'s bedroom and staff increased the frequency of bed checks. R.V. was found outside of A.B.'s bedroom on three occasions as a result of a door alarm. The victim was subsequently moved by her family to an all-female home. The defendants allege that A.B. had a history of making unsubstantiated claims of physical and sexual abuse, including 10 that were investigated by OPWDD between 2006 and 2012. While a formal investigation was not opened after A.B.'s complaint, a staff member was instructed to inspect A.B.'s bed sheets for urine but did not find physical evidence of her claim. OPWDD spokeswoman Jennifer O'Sullivan declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. "OPWDD takes the safety and security of the individuals we serve very seriously. Allegations of abuse are thoroughly investigated and, when appropriate, disciplinary action and additional safety measures are taken," O'Sullivan said on Thursday. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. State facilities that house the disabled and mentally ill have long been plagued by allegations of abuse and neglect. In 2013, the state created the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs in response to a series by the New York Times that exposed rampant abuse and neglect at facilities and homes that care for the mentally and physically vulnerable clients. According to its five-year progress report, the agency has investigated 46,000 cases, prosecuted 550 of them and barred 450 people from the workforce who were found to have committed serious wrongdoing. A.B.'s family has retained New York City law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady. The firm also represented the family of Jonathan Carey, a teen with autism who was was killed in 2007 by an employee at the former O.D. Heck Developmental Center in Niskayuna. The state attorney general's office is representing the OPWDD employees. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Letitia James declined to comment. Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the year that the rape is alleged to have occurred. ALBANY Tensions in the Albany police force bubbled over earlier this week when Chief Eric Hawkins met with a few dozen officers a week after the department charged a patrolman with felony assault for allegedly beating a man during a West Hill clash. "It was what I expected," Hawkins said. "There's a great deal of frustration, fear, concern; there's some anger in some places in the department regarding what happened. ... There were individuals who were concerned about a person that they care for, that theyve worked with for many, many years, and theyve gotten to know that person on a personal level." The chief's meeting with the officers scheduled since before the department arrested one of its own took place early Monday at the department's Center Station on Western Avenue. That's the station where Officer Luke Deer had been assigned before he was suspended and charged with assault and official misconduct. Two other officers, Matthew Seeber and Adam Iannacito, were also suspended and are the subject of an investigation into the actions of officers who used physical force while breaking up a house party. Police sources briefed on the chief's meeting with about 35 officers at Center Station said at least one officer questioned the loyalty of the administration to its rank-and-file officers. Hawkins, in his first year as chief, described the heated comments as "emotional." His presence at Center Station was part of a series of planned meetings at stations around the city where he is seeking input from officers and non-sworn members of the department, he said. He described Monday's meeting as "90 percent ... constructive." "I didnt take that meeting to be adversarial or confrontational," Hawkins said. "There was an emotional release for some people that were in the room but it didnt reach a point where we felt it may escalate or become physical or anything like that." A spokesman for the Albany Police Officers Union did not respond to requests for comment. Hawkins, who some officers view as an outsider because he had worked for a police force in Michigan before coming to Albany in September, stressed that an "overwhelming majority in this police department are doing a great job." "They want for this department to heal and move forward," he said. "There really is a movement within the officers and the non-sworn members in this department to move forward and do what we love to do, which is to serve this community." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The chief said his administration is reviewing its procedures after it was revealed that police had been to the West Hill residence dozens of times in response to neighbors' complaints about a house they said has effectively operated as an underground, after-hours nightclub. "In the aftermath of this incident, as we reflected, we saw there were some opportunities that perhaps we didnt maximize," Hawkins said, adding that his administration is working to improve the coordination between police, code enforcers and other city departments. A number of officers used force against several men inside and outside the house March 16. Three men were charged with minor crimes ranging from disorderly conduct to inciting a riot, but the charges were dropped last week after prosecutors and police leaders reviewed officers' body-camera footage and determined some of the force was excessive, and potentially criminal. The probe is also scrutinizing whether some officers may have falsified police records to justify their use of physical force and to explain an officer's decision to kick in the door without a warrant. "We're absolutely still committed to community policing," the chief said. THE ISSUE: A proposal to require better wages on more kinds of publicly funded projects fails. THE STAKES: When public subsidies benefit as many people as possible, the dividends multiply. When the public underwrites a project, the public should benefit. One of those benefits should be good wages for the people who work on that project. Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered a proposal to achieve that in his executive budget by expanding the list of state-supported projects on which employers would be required to pay prevailing wages. Many in the business community didn't like it, but opposition also came from some rather surprising quarters. In the final budget negotiations, the proposal fell off the table. Prevailing wages are generally keyed to local union wages in the area where a project is being done. By state law, they must be paid on state public works projects, such as roads and bridges, for which the government hires private contractors. Mr. Cuomo proposed to expand the rule to projects that are state-funded but don't fall under the traditional definition of public works, such as alternative energy, affordable housing, brownfield redevelopments, historic preservation and charitable work. Taxpayers subsidize all of those through grants, zero- or low-interest loans and tax incentives. Opponents of prevailing wage complain that the requirement drives up project costs, and that union wages reflect only the high end of the wages paid in many areas of the state. Nonunion companies tend to pay less. The rates, critics say, also include the cost of benefits that nonunionized construction workers may not get, like health care and retirement benefits. Well, so what? Why should the state be subsidizing work by companies whose pay isn't sufficient to support the cost of health care and retirement savings pay, that is, that's just enough for workers to pay the bills today with nothing left over for retirement or medical care? Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Some of the more surprising sources of opposition to Mr. Cuomo's proposal were the alternative energy and affordable housing sectors. Solar energy groups warned that it would raise the cost of community solar arrays and residential rooftop systems at a time when New York is trying to wean the state off fossil fuels. Affordable housing groups, among them the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity, said it would drive up the cost of building housing for people of modest means. It's important to bear in mind that decent pay isn't just a benefit for the workers who earn it. As economic development officials and private companies are quick to argue when defending public subsidies, payroll dollars have a multiplier effect because workers spend money in their communities. Allowing developers to pay lower wages means fewer people will pocket more profit; requiring higher wages will spread those state dollars around to the workers. What opponents are essentially saying is this: You can have a new green economy, provided you don't require people who work in it to be paid living wages; and you can have affordable housing, as long as the people who build it don't get decent paychecks. Surely New York, for its money, can do better than this zero-sum game. [April 11, 2019] AI-Powered Virtual Healthcare Available To Canadians Digital health partnership to give Canadians unlimited, instant access to licensed doctors MONTREAL, April 11, 2019 /CNW/ -- VirtualMED is partnering with HealthTap, a US-based health technology company, to provide Canadians with easy access to high quality, AI-powered virtual care. No more waiting hours at the emergency room or weeks and months for a doctor's appointment. VirtualMED members will have fast access to primary care, 24/7, from a team of licensed physicians on any internet-enabled device, complete with an AI symptom checker. If a diagnosis cannot be given through teleconsult, an in-person appointment is available within 24 hours.1 First class care VirtualMED is physician-owned and registered with the College des medecins du Quebec to provide healthcare services to Canadians. Powered by HealthTap's technology, VirtualMED will offer consumers and businesses immediate, virtual access to the VirtualMED team of leading physicians. VirtualMED will provide its members with a complete range of services including diagnostics, referrals, prescriptions, lab results, and treatment plans across Canada and the US. "We are proud to be the first to help Canadians and businesses save precious time and money by offering quick and easy access to our team of physicians through the unique combination of HealthTap's renowned virtual care app and our brick-and-mortar clinics," said Dr. Patricia Cote, co-owner of VirtualMED. VirtualMED will offer packages to businesses directly and through their insurance carriers who wish to provide access to virtual primary healthcare for employees which will reduce costs, save time, and increase satisfaction. Individual and family packages will also be available for all Canadians. Users will have access to VirtualMed's licensed doctors through an AI-based app which provides personalized, convenient diagnoses and treatment plans. VirtualMED members will also haveaccess to affordable, virtual care when travelling in the US, which can prevent expensive treatment costs. VirtualMED services and app will be available to all Canadians in French and English by the end of 2019. Health technology leader HealthTap is a globally renowned health technology company that provides comprehensive access to quality primary healthcare in an engaging, satisfying, and value-packed app. HealthTap's AI-powered platform personalizes users' care and enables an instant connection between the members and their doctors. According to Sean Mehra, Chief Strategy Officer at HealthTap, "HealthTap is excited to partner with VirtualMED to overcome the issues that affect Canadian healthcare by implementing HealthTap's comprehensive consumer healthcare experience, powered by AI and supported by a large, global community of doctors and patients. VirtualMED's established reputation for delivering quality will now be amplified to be Canada's exemplary healthcare provider committed to timely access to care for all." HealthTap's technology currently serves employers, insurance companies, health systems, and users around the world with industry-leading results. Businesses see user engagement rates up to 18 times the healthcare industry average. Members and doctors using the app report satisfaction scores 7 or more times greater than stand-alone telemedicine solutions. Because employees use it and enjoy it, HealthTap saves time and money for both businesses and consumers. 1 As permitted by law, currently only in the province of Quebec at ExcelleMD clinics. About VirtualMED VirtualMED is a team of healthcare professionals, in partnership with ExcelleMD, dedicated to offering high quality medical services. The partnership serves over 30,000 private clients and over 20 corporate businesses to cover all their health needs. VirtualMED distinguishes itself through its team of dedicated healthcare professionals, available 7 days/week. In just one click, VirtualMED members have access to secure, confidential teleconsults with a licenced physician. Only VirtualMED offers complete primary care solutions and continuity of care as well as a la carte access to a variety of specialists. In person visits are also available at ExcelleMD clinics. About HealthTap HealthTap is delivering universal access to quality, primary healthcare, HealthTap improves the experience for both patients and doctors while saving time and reducing costs for all. HealthTap's doctor-trained, artificial intelligence system personalizes users' care and enables an instant connection to doctors and their knowledge from 163 specialties. HealthTap serves its app to employers, insurance companies, health systems, and users around the world. More than 144,000 doctors and 7.6 million members have trusted HealthTap for immediate access to healthcare. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ai-powered-virtual-healthcare-available-to-canadians-300830890.html SOURCE VirtualMED [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Co-building, Co-sharing, and Co-existence: Hundreds of Innovative Practitioners from Around the World Gather at Plug and Play China Day BEIJING, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 28, the Plug and Play China Day was held in Beijing. More than 600 guests from top 500s, startups, VC partners, urban parks, government authorities, embassies and consulates in China, well-known universities and research institutes, industry associations and media attended the event. With the theme of "Innovation Forward, Ecosystem In-depth", the conference was divided into "Immersion Tour - Innovation Showroom", "China Day - Road to Innovation", "Startups - By Your Side", "Path - Steps of Innovation", "Platform - Where Innovation Starts" and "We are Global - Top Startups Pitches". Through immersive interaction experiences, panel discussions, keynote speeches, and video pitches the event showcased vividly and comprehensively the innovative ecosystem of Plug and Play that has been cultivated and built around the world for 20 years. At the beginning of the conference, Jeff Chien, Senior Vice President and Partner of Plug and Play China; Rahim Amidi, President and Founder of Plug and Play; and Shawn Chen, Co-founder and Executive Director of Plug and Play China, led the guests to review the history of Plug and Play. Starting from No. 165 University Avenue, Palo Alto, California, Plug and Play witnessed the rise of a group of epoch-making technology companies in Silicon Valley in the late 20th century. It has grown into a global leading technology innovation platform, paving the way for innovation around the world and leading its forward direction. Looking back on this more than 20 years of "Road to innovation", Plug and Play has accumulated a wealth of experience and insight. Based on more than two decades of deep cultivation, Peter Xu, Managing Partner and CEO of Plug and Play China, released three innovation trends: "earlier than earlier", "all companies will become technology companies" and "innovation from space to megalopolis". Based on these insights, Plug and Play hopes to work with partners to build a new co-building, co-sharing and co-existence innovation platform, creating value and having dreams come true therein. Earlier Than Earlier Plug and Play China believes that the burgeoning of innovation needs to be discovered earlier. Plug and Play China will also help to discover innovation earlier, both in terms of startups and investors. At the conference, Zhao Chen, Managing Partner and Executive Vice President of Plug and Play China, launched the "Global Chinese Startups Station" program. From Silicon Valley, Europe, Asia to China, with Chinese culture as the link, global Chinese innovation power is poised to be gathered to foster an innovative atmosphere. In response to VC, Zhao Chen also announced the establishment of an investment eco-community with VC partners to achieve long-term sustainable and common development through resource and platform connections. Zhao Chen discussed the changes in the investment market and the demands of VC for the technology innovation platform with a umber of guests, including Qixin Sun, Deputy Director of the Incubator Management Division of the Torch Hi-Tech Industrial Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology; Yutong Zhang, Partner of GSR Ventures; Reggie Zhang, Partner of Redpoint China; Yu Liang, Partner of China Creation Ventures; Rico Ren, Vice President of Baidu Ventures; and Nero Wang, Investment Director of Sinovation Ventures. For the group of female entrepreneurs, Ms. Yisi Gu, Executive Director of Plug and Play China, announced the launch of the "FoundHER" program. One year ago, Plug and Play launched the FoundHER program in Silicon Valley, igniting, connecting and inspiring women entrepreneurs relying on Plug and Play's global innovation ecosystem. This time, FoundHER will be implemented in China. And it is committed to connecting Chinese women entrepreneurs around the world to achieve a more beautiful career. Witnessed by all, Plug and Play China's season 1 micro-documentary "Live Larger than Life" staged the debut. Nearly 20 entrepreneurs stepped onto the stage, receiving praise from the audience. All companies will become technology companies Plug and Play China has found that past technological innovations have transformed production tools and brought the last three industrial revolutions; today's technological innovations have not only transformed production tools, but also changed producer and production relationships. As a result, Plug and Play China proposes that in the future, all companies will become technology companies. In the wave of unremitting innovations, only by discovering pain points, conducting pilots, breaking down barriers, combining internal and external forces, and absorbing talents, can innovation be maintained in an ever-changing era. This requires corporates and technological startups to cooperate with each other, explore and practice repeatedly, and find the most mutually beneficial ways for common development. Qiao Dan, Vice President of Plug and Play China, opened the next chapter of the conference "Ecosystem In-depth". Presented by Jeff Lin, Co-founder of Dasym Asia, the roundtable discussion with the theme of "Steps of Innovation" was conducted, featuring Ye Feng, Senior Director of Open Innovation of Signify China and Asia; Shengyun Wang, General Manager of innovation R&D Dept. of Sinotrans Ltd.; Dong Li, Chief Data Officer of Sunshine Insurance; and Hao Wang, Founder & CEO of Phantom. They shared their thoughts on enterprise open innovation. Thereafter, Professor Yingfeng Cao, Dean of the Institute of Global Entrepreneurship & Innovation, shared his theoretical views on innovation. From space to megalopolis From Silicon Valley to China, Plug and Play has always been committed to bringing innovative ecological elements such as startups, corporates, VC, and research institutes together to form a dynamic ecosystem of innovation. In China, Plug and Play also deeply integrates high-tech parks and cities into the platform. Plug and Play China believes that the collaboration of innovation spaces, companies, and high-tech parks allows the elements of innovation to circulate within the city, bringing together talent, knowledge, and capital. On the basis of the urban innovation platform, the cities in the region cooperate with each other based on their different industrial structures, allowing the elements of innovation to flow freely within a larger scope. Such moves will help form an innovative urban community, becoming a regional carrier of innovation, and achieving organic growth. Xiaotian Chen, General Manager of Unicom Internet of Things Co., Ltd.; Xing Zhao, Founder & CEO of Minyuan Sensorg; Yujie Jiang, Partner of Albatross Venture; and Dr. Fan Qun, President of Guangzhou Googol Park, respectively represented corporates, startups, VCs and high-tech parks and shared their experience in innovation. In the exchanges, the parties affirmed the value of "borderless connection" and expressed their appeal to "ecosystem". Thereafter, Dawn Chen, Senior Vice President and Partner of Plug and Play China, introduced Plug and Play China's urban innovation and regional innovation strategy, sharing the ecological model of "globally connected innovation". Innovative products exhibition The event also transformed the venue into an immersive innovative showroom of more than 1,000 square meters. More than 60 domestic and overseas companies were divided into five focus areas and six interactive experience areas, which combined to showcase future technological innovation trends. The audience came across the "Road to Innovation", reviewed the past and present of innovation and came to the "cross-vertical scene display area" to experience the joint display of 8 sets of cross-industry scientific and technological achievements. In the "Next Generation" exhibition area, the audience could feel the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs. In the "Cross-border" exhibition area, technology companies from Silicon Valley brought their latest achievements. In the "Innovation Space" exhibition area, the audience could experience the innovative space from the office model room to the city-wide area. In the "Digital Platform" display area, viewers could experience boundary-less innovative and connected communication online. The evening session of the conference used video pitches to showcase more than ten outstanding projects that Plug and Play accelerated in Silicon Valley. In addition, nearly 10 Silicon Valley startups were present to showcase their projects; the pitch also marked a successful completion of Spring Cross-border Tour of Plug and Play. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/co-building-co-sharing-and-co-existence-hundreds-of-innovative-practitioners-from-around-the-world-gather-at-plug-and-play-china-day-300829653.html SOURCE Plug and Play China [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] FlexITy Partners with GetWellNetwork Delivered By FlexHealth - Patient Engagement Technology for Canadian Healthcare Providers FlexITy is uniquely Canadian and was recently selected by Mackenzie Health to deliver "smart" patient engagement technology at their new Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital. RICHMOND HILL, ON, April 11, 2019 /CNW/ - FlexITy, an award-winning technology company is delighted to announce a FlexHealth solution which is designed in partnership with GetWellNetwork to deploy "smart," patient-centric solutions in Canada. Our exclusive relationship with GetWellNetwork, combined with our deep understanding of the technology, security and data privacy needs of healthcare providers, has enabled us to deliver an advanced and innovative patient engagement platform that is well-positioned for Canadian healthcare. "Technology has a vital role to play in improving patient care and patient outcomes," said Peter Stavropoulos, CEO and President, FlexITy. "As a leading provider of technology and service solutions in Canada, we were very selective in determining that digital patient engagement provider GetWellNetwork is the right partner and their solution GetWell Inpatient is the right technology for us to expand our FlexHealth practice, a fully digital patient engagement and care experience for Canadian healthcare organizations." "Care delivery models are changing rapidly and patients today are expecting more personalized and consumer-like experiences regardless of the care setting, condition or stage of the patient journey they're in," said Michael O'Neil, founder and CEO, GetWellNetwork. "The Canadian market is one that we've been considering for some time, but we needed the right partner to jointly deliver the right solution. FlexITy is that partner and we are delighted that Mackenzie Health selected FlexITy with GetWell Inpatient as the right patient and family engagement solution for their new hospital." Mackenzie Health will deploy GetWell Inpatient, powered by FlexITy and GetWellNetwork, at the new Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital, currently under construction and set to open in late 2020. The solution will integrate with Mackenzie Health's electronic medical record to deliver personalized health support helping patients understand their condition, learn about medications, control their environment, prepare for discharge and more. The 1.2 million sq. ft. hospital will provide 350 patient beds with the ability to increase capacity to 550 beds. As the first new hospital in York Region in more than 30 years, it will join Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital, alongside Mackenzie Health's community-based locations, in providing access to state-of-the-art healthcare to residents. This technology will be in place at Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital in late 2020. Plans to implement some features gradually at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital will occur after 2020. "We are thrilled to partner with FlexITy to deploy the innovative GetWell Inpatient digital solution at Mackenzie Health," says Altaf Stationwala, President and CEO, Mackenzie Health. "This 'smart' patient- and family-centered technology will integrate with Mackenzie Health's electronic medical record and support healthcare professionals in delivering personalized health support at the bedside. This is a key step forward on our 'smart' hospital vision to provide our community with exceptional healthcare." For patients, FlexHealth-Powered by FlexITy with GetWell Inpatient will mean more control, increased convenience, deeper knowledge and a better experience. For healthcare professionals, it will mean spending less time filling out paperwork, accurately capturing data in real-time and creating efficient workflows that allow more time at the patient's bedside. FlexITy will further continue to invest in resources in order to collaborate into Mackenzie Innovative Institute (Mi2) for the advancement and research of innovative healthcare in Canada. "One of the biggest opportunities with this technology solution is the level of control and independence we can give directly to patients," says Richard Tam, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Mackenzie Health. "The 'smart' pathways and intelligence we're building into this technology will unlock a world of choice for all patients and families." About FlexITy Solutions FlexITy is an award-winning integrator of smart technology and service solutions, built on powerful and digitally advanced secure platforms, and delivered with decades of IoT expertise and services. FlexHealth-Powered by FlexITy, is a suite of patient-centric solutions that integrate interactive mobile applications, secure health IT and data and optimize healthcare management. FlexHealth engages patients and families, empowers clinicians and delivers outcomes that matter. www.FlexHealth.ca, 866.779.FLEX(3539). About GetWellNetwork GetWellNetwork is the Precision Engagement healthcare company. Our solutions engage patients and families, empower clinicians and deliver outcomes that matter. From inpatient to outpatient, to physician practices and urgent care clinics, to patients on the go, GetWellNetwork offers the only cross-continuum platform that performs across every care setting. Learn more at getwellnetwork.com or follow @GetWellNetwork on social media. About Mackenzie Health Mackenzie Health is a dynamic regional healthcare provider which includes the existing Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and the future Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital, as well as a comprehensive network of community-based services. In March 2017, the organization received its second consecutive award of Accreditation with Exemplary Standing from Accreditation Canada for its commitment to safety and quality patient care. This is the highest rating a Canadian healthcare provider can receive. Guided by a vision to create a world-class health experience, Mackenzie Health has an unrelenting focus on the patient and is dedicated to patient needs now and in the future. With over 500,000 residents in Southwest York Region, Mackenzie Health is proud to serve one of the fastest growing and most diverse communities in Canada. For more information, please visit mackenziehealth.ca View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/flexity-partners-with-getwellnetwork-delivered-by-flexhealth---patient-engagement-technology-for-canadian-healthcare-providers-300830439.html SOURCE FlexITy Solutions Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] MEDIA ALERT: Welcoming a Child? The Tax Code is Here to Help Welcoming a new child into a family, can be very exciting, fulfilling, and rewarding but also very expensive. There are the hospital bills, baby's room, clothes and diapers, special food, surrogate or birth mother expenses, travel, and possible loss of income of a stay-at-home parent. The Tax Code, however, tries to be family friendly in a number of ways. "In addition to raising revenue to support our government, many don't realize that the Tax Code is also structured to promote a number of social goals deemed worthy of encouragement, including helping families," said Mark Luscombe, JD, LLM, CPA and Principal Federal Tax Analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. "A number of Tax Code provisions are designed to make finances a little easier for new parents, with a few adjustments made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act." Top Tax Tips for New Parents A New Child Can Qualify Parents for a Number of Tax Breaks The Child Tax Credit, now up to $2,000 The Child and Dependent Care Credit, up to $1,050 for one child; employer may also offer a tax-favored child care reimbursement account The Earned Income Tax Credit, with the maximum credit increasing from $529 with no qualifying children to $3,526 with one qualifying child for 2019 The Adoption Credit, up to a maximum of $14,080 for qualifying adoption expenses for 2019; employer may also offer tax-favored adoption assistance program Code Sec. 529 Education Savings Plans, no deduction or credit, except possibly for state income taxes, but significant contributions, tax-free accumulation of earnings, and no income limits Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, up to $2,000 per year in non-deductible contributions and tax-free distributions for elementary and secondary education Medical expense deduction, possible additional itemized deduction for medical expenses of birth and child care if itemize deductions and total medical expenses exceed 10 percent of adjusted gross income Filing Status: A new child may change the filing status of a single parent from a single filer to a head of household filer <>A Few Things to Watch Social Security number, obtain a Social Security number for the child as soon as possible for all of the tax benefits Qualifying Child, meet residency and support tests, especially an issue with divorced or separated parents The Kiddie Tax, can tax unearned income of the child at very high estate and gift tax rates The Nanny Tax, requires proper tax treatment of anyone hired to care for the new child, including reporting wages and withholding Social Security and Medicare taxes Proposed Legislation With all of the other things new parents have to worry about with the arrival of a new child, worrying about taking maximum advantage of the tax benefits can bring additional rewards. About Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting is a leading provider of software solutions and local expertise that helps tax, accounting, and audit professionals research and navigate complex regulations, comply with legislation, manage their businesses and advise clients with speed, accuracy, and efficiency. Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting is part of Wolters Kluwer (WKL), a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2018 annual revenues of 4.3 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY). For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005148/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] New App Connects Ethical Dog Breeders With Loving Homes For Pups DES MOINES, Iowa, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Fizzgig is changing the way breeders connect with consumers. The easy-to-use mobile app has created a platform for hopeful dog owners to confidently browse ethically-raised pups across the United States. Uploading photos of puppies and managing the real-time status of the listings is now just a tap away for breeders. Fizzgig was developed with passion by Midwest-based dog breeders who realized a disparity in the industryaround the simple values of honesty and integrity. "While this notion of honesty and integrity is paramount for most breeders and demanded by many pet-owners, scams and brazen business practices are unfortunately an ongoing, unfathomable concern," explains Daphne Christensen, Fizzgig spokesperson. "Here's where Fizzgig comes in, to alleviate worry and build trust through a straightforward mobile app. Consumers can rest-assured we've done our homework by allowing only licensed or vet-approved breeders in." USA breeders interested in joining the Fizzgig network start by creating a profile to include up to three photos of their facility. Listing puppies is only three steps away: Start by creating your breeder profile at www.Fizzgig.co and choosing your subscription plan (starting at $19.99 per month) per month) Authentication is quick, in most cases you'll hear from Fizzgig Support within one day alerting you of approval or denial Use the website or download the Fizzgig app to create and quickly manage your listings People searching for their next furry friend can easily create a consumer profile (this enables bookmarking favorites for quick recall laterthis feature also triggers notifications when the breeder updates the pup's price or availability) or simply browse listings as a guest. Fizzgig acts as a powerful resource for connecting reputable breeders with loving pup owners. Purchases are made directly with the breeder, not through the Fizzgig website or mobile app. About Fizzgig It is our number one goal to provide a trusted platform for consumers to know with confidence the pups they see on Fizzgig are coming from places of true love. We are dog people around here and connecting ethical breeders to responsible owners is our mission and the soul reason we brought Fizzgig to life. Media Contact: DAPHNE Christensen 515-440-1242 [email protected] www.entretechno.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-app-connects-ethical-dog-breeders-with-loving-homes-for-pups-300830776.html SOURCE Fizzgig [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] OPVIUS Introduces Novel, Cost-Efficient Acceptor Material from Nano-C in OPV Mass Production KITZINGEN, Germany and WESTWOOD, Mass., April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- OPVIUS and Nano-C today announced that through their long-standing and close collaboration, they have successfully introduced a new, cost-efficient acceptor into OPVIUS' mass production. Nano-C is a well-respected manufacturer of fullerenes and fullerene derivatives which, due to their unique properties, meet the needs and requirements of organic photovoltaics (OPV). Working together, Nano-C and OPVIUS were able to optimize the materials which resulted in more cost-efficient manufacturing of OPV devices. The new acceptor is easily processible via roll-to-roll printing and enables the manufacturing of commercial OPV modules with a highly competitive performance, but at significantly lower cost. In addition, the availability of the acceptor material in industrially relevant quantities is assured due to the implementation of Nano-C's large-scale manufacturing as previously announced by the company. The use of the new acceptor material has absolutely no negative impact on the performance and long-term stability of OPV modules. In fact, with certain material combinations, lifetime and efficiency of modules could even be increased. Even though OPVIUS' focus is not on increasing efficiency, this joint project demonstrated that a new internal efficiency record of more than 6% for a module having a commercial configuration could be achieved by means of the new acceptor material. "One of our primaryobjectives is the identification of more cost-efficient materials in order to reduce the cost per area of our OPV, while the performance is at the very least not allowed to become reduced," said Dr. Sebastian Meier, Director of Research and Development of OPVIUS GmbH. "In this context, an open-innovation approach such as the joint development work with Nano-C is part of our R&D strategy. The new acceptor material developed by Nano-C allows for OPV modules with efficiencies and lifetimes in line with the current state of the art, but combined with significant cost advantages. Therefore, the new Nano-C acceptor is an extremely attractive material for the use in OPV." Dr. Henning Richter, Vice President of Research and Development of Nano-C, Inc., added: "We are pleased that our long-standing efforts to gain a better understanding of structure-property correlations of electron-acceptor materials such as fullerene derivatives have resulted in a product that can make a real impact on the further development of the OPV industry. We are excited that in consequence of the trustful collaboration between OPVIUS and Nano-C, increasing quantities of our newly developed material will now be used in the roll-to-roll production of OPV for commercial use." About OPVIUS OPVIUS GmbH, founded in 2012 and located in Nuremberg and Kitzingen (INNOPARK Kitzingen), is among the world leaders in the field of organic photovoltaics. OPVIUS produces organic solar cells with a focus on client-specific solutions. In addition, the company is also active in the field of research and development, in order to continue to provide its clients with creative and innovative solutions. In this regard, OPVIUS uses a unique production process, combining printing, lamination, and laser techniques. This advanced technology is easily scalable and allows the production of the utmost individual, customer-specific designs. OPVIUS also helps clients with system solutions in order to integrate OPVs into already existing or new products. OPVIUS is part of the HOCH.REIN GROUP, an international, medium-sized investment holding with the aim to promote entrepreneurship. The fields of business activity encompass the areas "New Technologies", "Industrial Production", "Real Estate & IT Services" as well as "Alternative Energies & Trading". About Nano-C Located in Westwood, Massachusetts, Nano-C is a leading developer of nanostructured carbon for use in energy and electronic applications. These materials include fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and their chemical derivatives. Nano-C's mission is to play a key role in enabling applications of these materials and is committed to their responsible development and use. Nano-C is a privately held company. For more information, please, visit http://www.nano-c.com/. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/opvius-introduces-novel-cost-efficient-acceptor-material-from-nano-c-in-opv-mass-production-300830651.html SOURCE Nano-C, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] OSE Immunotherapeutics Announces Publication on Anti-IL-7 Receptor Antagonist, OSE-127, in The Journal of Clinical Investigation Data further support OSE-127s potential in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases Confirm novel and differentiated mechanism of action of OSE-127, currently being investigated in an ongoing Phase 1 trial NANTES, France, April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ?OSE Immunotherapeutics SA (ISIN: FR0012127173; Mnemo: OSE), today announced the publication of data on OSE -127, its full-antagonist monoclonal antibody targeting the interleukin-7 receptor (IL-7R), in the prestigious Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI). The article reports on research led by the OSE Immunotherapeutics team, in collaboration with multiple international expert partners, that further supports the products potential for the treatment of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. The article, entitled IL-7 receptor influences anti-TNF responsiveness and T cell gut homing in inflammatory bowel disease, concluded that: In patients with active mucosal lesions, the overexpression of IL-7R, the target of OSE-127, is significantly increased and is predictive for non-response to anti-TNFa treatment. Moreover, this non-response is strongly correlated to a mucosal defect in regulatory T-lymphocytes. In preclinical humanized models reconstituted with human T lymphocytes, OSE-127 significantly blocked pathological homing of human T lymphocytes to the inflamed colon thereby preventing destruction of gut mucosa by the T lymphocytes. OSE-127 significantly reduced production of gamma interferon expressed by proinflammatory mucosal T lymphocytes ex vivo in colon biopsies from patients with inflammatory bowel disease. These findings confirm a novel and differentiated mechanism of action of full-antagonist of IL-7R OSE-127. They support the potential of this compound to be a relevant therapy in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases where there is a high unmet medical need. OSE-127 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial and we look forward to further exploring the products potential through our ongoing partnership with Servier1, commented Nicolas Poirier, chief scientific officer of OSE Immunotherapeutics. We would like to warmly thank our team, the network of renowned experts and clinicians and all international and French institutions for their commitment to this work (Center for Research in Transplantation and Immunology, Nantes University Hospital: Pr. Gilles Blancho, Pr. Jean-Paul Soulillou, Dr. Sophie Brouard; Bpifrance; The London School of Medicine and Dentistry: Pr. Thomas T. MacDonald; The Institute of Digestive Diseases (IMAD), Nantes; Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York: Pr. Miriam Merad). OSE-127 is being developed in partnership with Servier under an option agreement up to the completion of a Phase 2 clinical trial planned in autoimmune bowel diseases and in parallel, Servier plans a development in Sjogrens syndrome. The product is currently under a Phase 1 clinical trial in which the first healthy volunteers were enrolled and dosed in December 2018. This first-in-human dose-escalation, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 1 trial, aims to evaluate the safety and tolerability of single- and multiple-ascending intravenous and subcutaneous doses of OSE-127 in 63 healthy volunteers. Secondary endpoints include measures of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and immunogenicity to help assess and understand how the drug is absorbed and metabolized. In addition, exploratory biomarkers will be used to assess OSE-127s potential for the treatment of inflammatory autoimmune diseases. [1] Servier is an international pharmaceutical company governed by a non-profit foundation, with its headquarters in France (Suresnes). IL-7 receptor influences anti-TNF responsiveness and T cell gut homing in inflammatory bowel disease 1 Richard Danger,2,3 Laetitia Kermarrec,4 Veronique Nerriere-Daguin,2,3 Sabrina Pengam,1 Tony Durand,4 Caroline Mary,1 Elise Kerdreux,5 Vanessa Gauttier,1 Aneta Kucik,6 Virginie Thepenier,1 Jerome C. Martin,7,8,9 Christie Chang,7,8,9 Adeeb Rahman,7,10,11 Nina Salabert-Le Guen,2,12,13,14 Cecile Braudeau,2,12,13 Ahmed Abidi,2,15 Gregoire David,4 Florent Malard,2 Celine Takoudju,4 Bernard Martinet,2,3 Nathalie Gerard,2,3 Isabelle Neveu,4,5 Michel Neunlist,4,5 Emmanuel Coron,4,5 Thomas T. MacDonald,6 Pierre Desreumaux,16 Hoa-Le Mai,2,3 Stephanie Le Bas-Bernardet,2,3 Jean-Francois Mosnier,2,17 Miriam Merad,7,8,9,11 Regis Josien,2,3,12,14 Sophie Brouard,2,3 Jean-Paul Soulillou,2 Gilles Blancho,2,3 Arnaud Bourreille,4,5 Philippe Naveilhan,4,5 Bernard Vanhove,1 and Nicolas Poirier1 1OSE Immunotherapeutics, Nantes, France. 2Centre de Recherche en Transplantation et Immunologie (CRTI), UMR 1064, Inserm, Universite de Nantes, Nantes, France. 3Institut de Transplantation Urologie Nephrologie (ITUN), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nantes (CHU Nantes), Nantes, France. 4Institut des Maladies de lAppareil Digestif (IMAD), The Enteric Nervous System in Gut and Brain Disorders, Universite de Nantes, INSERM, Nantes, France. 5CHU Nantes, IMAD, Nantes, France. 6Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom. 7Precision Immunology Institute, 8Tisch Cancer Institute, 9Department of Oncological Sciences, 10Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, and 11Human Immune Monitoring Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA. 12CHU Nantes, Laboratoire dImmunologie, Center for Immuno Monitoring Nantes-Atlantique (CIMNA), Nantes, France. 13LabEx Immunograft Oncology (IGO), Nantes, France. 14Universite de Nantes, Faculte de Medecine, Nantes, France. 15Universite de Tunis El Manar, Laboratoire de genetique, immunologie et pathologies humaines, Faculte des sciences de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia. 16Hepato-Gastroenterology Department, Claude Huriez Hospital, University of Lille 2, Lille, France. 17CHU Nantes, Service dAnatomie et Cytologie Pathologiques, Nantes, France. ABOUT OSE Immunotherapeutics OSE Immunotherapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing and partnering therapies to control the immune system for immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases. The company has a diversified first-in-class clinical portfolio consisting of several scientific and technological platforms including neoepitopes and agonist or antagonist monoclonal antibodies, all ideally positioned to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases. The most advanced therapeutic-candidate, Tedopi, is a proprietary combination of 10 neo-epitopes aimed at stimulating T-lymphocytes and is currently in Phase 3 development in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after checkpoint inhibitor failure (anti PD-1 and anti PD-L1) and in Phase 2 testing in pancreatic cancer in combination with checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo. FR104 (an anti-CD28 mAb) has successfully completed Phase 1 testing and has potential to treat autoimmune diseases. BI 765063 (OSE-172) (anti-SIRPa monoclonal antibody) is under a license and collaboration agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim ; this checkpoint inhibitor has received CTA from French and Belgian health authorities for a Phase 1 clinical trial in multiple cancer indications. BiCKI is a bispecific fusion protein platform built on the key backbone component anti-PD-1 (OSE-279) and targeting innovative targets. OSE-127 (monoclonal antibody targeting the CD127 receptor, the alpha chain of the interleukin-7 receptor) is partnered with Servier under an option agreement up to the completion of a Phase 2 clinical trial planned in autoimmune bowel diseases; in parallel, Servier plans a development in the Sjogren syndrome. OSE-127 is currently under Phase 1 clinical trial. Click and follow us on Twitter and Linkedln https://twitter.com/OSEIMMUNO https://www.linkedin.com/company/10929673 Contacts OSE Immunotherapeutics Sylvie Detry [email protected] +33 153 198 757 French Media: FP2COM Florence Portejoie [email protected] +33 607 768 283 U.S. Media: LifeSci Public Relations Darren Opland, Ph.D. [email protected] +1 646 627 8387 U.S. and European Investors Chris Maggos [email protected] +41 79 367 6254 Forward-looking statements This press release contains express or implied information and statements that might be deemed forward-looking information and statements in respect of OSE Immunotherapeutics. They do not constitute historical facts. These information and statements include financial projections that are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by OSE Immunotherapeutics management in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. These forward-looking statements include statements typically using conditional and containing verbs such as expect, anticipate, believe, target, plan, or estimate, their declensions and conjugations and words of similar import. Although the OSE Immunotherapeutics management believes that the forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, the OSE Immunotherapeutics shareholders and other investors are cautioned that the completion of such expectations is by nature subject to various risks, known or not, and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of OSE Immunotherapeutics. These risks could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. These risks include those discussed or identified in the public filings made by OSE Immunotherapeutics with the AMF. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. This press release includes only summary information and should be read with the OSE Immunotherapeutics Reference Document filed with the AMF on 26 April 2018, including the annual financial report for the fiscal year 2017, available on the OSE Immunotherapeutics website. Other than as required by applicable law, OSE Immunotherapeutics issues this press release at the date hereof and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information or statements. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] RetailMeNot's Tax Day Freebies AUSTIN, Texas, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Tax Day is just around the corner, and while owing Uncle Sam money is never fun, there is a silver lining: freebies and deals. As tax season is wrapping up, shoppers want to save as much money as possible, and RetailMeNot has compiled a list of the best Tax Day deals on April 15. There are a handful of restaurants, services and even retailers that will have offers to help save during one of the most expensive times of the year. Shopping and trends expert for RetailMeNot, Sara Skirboll, says, "Sweeten the sour of Tax Day this year, and find deals on food and delivery services nationwide. This year's offers even extend to other retailers so shoppers can save on apparel, travel and even fitness." For the full list of Tax Day deals, head to the RetailMeNot blog, The Real Deal. Amazon Restaurants: You don't need to leave the couch for this deal. Get $7 off your first Amazon Restaurants order with code EAT7. off your first Amazon Restaurants order with code EAT7. Applebee's: Enjoy the Applebee's April drink special, the Strawberry Dollarita with a Twizzler straw, for just $1 all month long. all month long. Boston Market: Get the $10.40 Tax Day special from April 10 through April 15 . The special includes a half-chicken with two sides, cornbread and a regular fountain beverage drink while supplies last. Tax Day special from . The special includes a half-chicken with two sides, cornbread and a regular fountain beverage drink while supplies last. Bruegger's Bagels: Get the Big Bagel Bundle (13 New Yorkstyle bagels with two tubs of cream cheese) for $10.40 from April 10 through April 15 at Bruegger's. from at Bruegger's. Cicis: Purchase a large drink, and get an adult buffet meal for $4.15 on Tax Day. Redeem the coupon here. on Tax Day. Redeem the coupon here. DoorDash: Stay on the couch and get food delivered. DoorDash is offering $20 off on any order for new customers through April. off on any order for new customers through April. Great American Cookies: Get a free Original Chocolate Chip Cookie on April 15 at Great American Cookies. No purchase required. at Great American Cookies. No purchase required. Hardee's: Celebrate Tax Day with one free sausage biscuit from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. at participating locations. To get this deal, you need to say, "Made from scratch." at participating locations. To get this deal, you need to say, "Made from scratch." Noodles & Company: Sign up for NoodlesREWARDS by April 9 and receive $4 off online and mobile orders of $10 or more from April 10 to April 15 . and receive off online and mobile orders of or more from . Potbelly Sandwich Shop: Get a BOGO free entree on April 15 when you mention that it's Tax Day. when you mention that it's Tax Day. Seamless: Another great delivery option! New customers get a $25 Seamless credit through April. Seamless credit through April. Schlotzsky's: Order a medium drink and chips on April 15,and get The Original sandwich for free on April 15 at participating Schlotzsky's Bakery Cafe locations. at participating Schlotzsky's Bakery Cafe locations. Smoothie King: Download the Smoothie King's Healthy Rewards app, and score $2 off any 20-ounce. Dermstore: Get the Best of Dermstore professional kit for $49.99 ( $200 value) on April 15 . ( value) on . Holiday Inn Express & Suites: Get 20% off your hotel room (two-night minimum) when you on April 15 . . Macy's: Score 40% off women's shoes when you buy two or more pairs by April 15 . . Office Depot/OfficeMax: Get up to five pounds of documents shredded for free through April 27 . Get coupon here. . Get coupon here. Planet Fitness: Both members and non-members can access available HydroMassage chairs from April. About RetailMeNot, Inc. RetailMeNot, Inc. (https://www.retailmenot.com/corp/) is a leading savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of offers to save money while they shop or dine out. RetailMeNot, Inc. estimates that $4.8 billion in retailer sales were attributable to consumer transactions from paid digital offers in its marketplace in 2017, more than $560 million of which were attributable to its in-store solution. The RetailMeNot, Inc. portfolio of websites and mobile applications includes RetailMeNot.com in the United States; RetailMeNot.ca in Canada; VoucherCodes.co.uk in the United Kingdom; ma-reduc.com and Poulpeo.com in France; and GiftCardZen.com and Deals2Buy.com in North America. As wholly owned subsidiaries of Harland Clarke Holdings, RetailMeNot and Valassis, a leader in intelligent media delivery, are partnering to connect retailers and consumers through meaningful digital, mobile and print promotions both online and in store. Media Contact: Hillary White RetailMeNot [email protected] (832) 278-5615 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/retailmenots-tax-day-freebies-300830234.html SOURCE RetailMeNot [April 11, 2019] Startups Bring New and Exciting Insight to LG Chem's Battery Business - The industry's first startup battery competition ends in success, generating numerous ideas from 129 startups across 27 countries - LG Chem seeks to enhance technological competitiveness through its open innovation policy SEOUL, South Korea, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Chem hosted 'The Battery Challenge Pitch Day' at LG Magok Science Park on April 10, where they announced the competition's five winners. The industry's first exclusive global battery competition for startups received 129 applications from 27 countries between August and November 2018. Held in South Korea, the home of LG Chem, the competition invited several startups who impressed during a comprehensive screening process. Each team presented their tech proposals and in-depth business plans and through holistic evaluations, LG Chem selected 5 outstanding finalists based on their technology's innovativeness and feasibility for commercialization. Winners will be given the opportunity to nurture their next-level technologies via joint research projects alongside LG Chem and will receive up to $2M in unding through a formal partnership agreement with the company. Visiting teams put forward their ideas for next-generation technology, which included improved lithium metal battery solutions, unique ways to increase battery performance via BMS (Battery Management System), and alternative routes to enhance processing and quality. Some teams presented their ideas based on 4th revolution innovations such as big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc., with many proposals catching the judges' attention. As for the 124 startups missing out on a Top 5 spot, LG Chem plans to keep them as candidates while continuing to work closely and offer support in terms of technological evaluation and future investment. "Because of the exponential development of the battery sector, continuing to seek out new technology initiatives is crucial to our success," said Myung Hwan Kim, president of LG Chem. "We will keep expanding our efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of our battery technology through activities inspired by the company's open innovation policy." LG Chem has been actively promoting the company's open innovation strategy to secure cutting-edge battery technology. In 2017, LG Chem hosted the 'Battery Innovation Contest (BIC),' which in the following year was expanded and renamed the 'Global Innovation Contest (GIC)' to strengthen its influence across the world. This worldwide initiative encourages the submission of innovative proposals across five business fields - energy, environment, functional materials, bio and platform technology - to assist research and academic institutions the world over. LG Chem is intensifying its cooperation in the battery field by working closely with prestigious universities and has committed to investing in promising start-ups in their early stages. About LG Chem LG Chem is one of the world's largest lithium-ion battery manufacturers with a market-leading position in advanced batteries for grid-scale, residential storage and automotive applications. Our advanced lithium ion battery technology is the product of 23 years of experience in the development and production of mobile batteries and large format batteries for automotive and energy storage systems (ESS). LG Chem's commitment to technology leadership coupled with efficient and high-quality manufacturing processes produces batteries that exhibit the highest levels of safety, performance and reliability. For more information, please visit www.LGChem.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/870130/LG_Chem_Battery_Challenge_Pitch_Day.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Tech Impact Honors Barclays With Founding Partner Award at Inaugural Las Vegas Awards Luncheon LAS VEGAS, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Tech Impact, a 501(c)(3) provider of nonprofit technology solutions and the operator of award-winning IT training programs for young adults, will honor Barclays with its Founding Partner Award at its inaugural Las Vegas Awards Luncheon. The award will acknowledge the significant support Barclays has provided to advancing Tech Impact's workforce development programs, ITWorks and CXWorks, in Southern Nevada. The Tech Impact Awards Luncheon is a technology-focused philanthropic event that brings together technology and business executives who are committed to improving the lives of individuals in Southern Nevada through job skills training. Since 2016, Tech Impact's ITWorks and CXWorks programs have helped 186 young adults in the Las Vegas Valley launch careers in the technology and customer experience industries. Funds raised through the event will help to keep these training programs completely free of charge to students. Since 2016, Barclays has provided significant funding to support ITWorks, the launch of CXWorks and the opening of the Tech Impact Opportunity Center in Las Vegas, which houses an administrative office and the CXWorks and ITWorks programs. The company also worked hand-in-hand with Tech Impact and McKinsey Generation to develop the CXWorks progra. In addition to funding support, Barclays has provided hundreds of hours of volunteer support to Tech Impact's programs. "Tech Impact's mission is to empower communities and nonprofits to use technology to better serve the world, and we're thrilled to celebrate the positive impact we've made on the lives of young adults in Southern Nevada," commented Patrick Callihan, executive director of Tech Impact. "We couldn't do this work without the support of our funders and partners, and we are delighted to honor Barclays with our Founding Partner Award. Barclays has been a driving force behind all of our workforce development programs, and their team played an instrumental role in not only launching these programs but in making them very successful." "Barclays is proud to support Tech Impact and their work to train youth for the jobs of the future," said Jenn Cho, head of community relations for Barclays US Consumer Bank. "We're honored to receive this award and look forward to our continued partnership. Barclays is committed to working with organizations like Tech Impact to provide pathways to employment helping to place 250,000 people into work by 2022 globally." In addition to the Barclays Founding Partner Award, Tech Impact will be presenting the Community Impact Award to MGM Resorts Foundation and the Volunteer Impact Award to Angie Cosca, CIO of Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging Centers. The Tech Impact Awards Luncheon will be held on April 12 from 11:30 a.m.2 p.m. at the Smith Center for Performing Arts in Las Vegas. The luncheon is presented by Link Technologies and opening remarks will be delivered by Dr. Tiffany G. Tyler-Garner, director at the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. Press contact: Michele Tomlinson, Tech Impact, [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tech-impact-honors-barclays-with-founding-partner-award-at-inaugural-las-vegas-awards-luncheon-300830466.html SOURCE Tech Impact [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Yamhill County, Oregon, Returns to Hart InterCivic for Verity Voting System Yamhill County will run its May election using Hart InterCivic's Verity Voting, after rejecting a competing system that did not work efficiently for the jurisdiction. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005895/en/ Request a Verity Demo: 866-216-4278 "We used (the other company's system) for our gubernatorial election, and I realized immediately that we did not want to use it for our upcoming presidential primary," said County Clerk Brian Van Bergen, who re-opened negotiations with Hart, a former election partner with more than 100 years of experience providing election solutions. "The issue boiled down to a failure to deliver integrated write-in resolutions. Our voters expect election results overnight, but the new system was not able to deliver. Announcing election results a week late was a significant public relations problem," he said. "With more than 500 precinct races for each party, all allowing write-ins, adjudicating ballots in a timely way is crucial," said Van Bergen. "The system we purchased could not deliver the fast, easy-to-understand results our voters had learned to expect with Hart's legacy system." The County has nearly 69,000 registered voters and, like in all of Oregon, voters mark paper ballots delivered by mail. Hart InterCivic's Verity offers best-in-industry central scanning solution that facilitates efficient, accurate and transparent handling for large volumes of by-mail ballots. The County successfully renegotiated its election contracts and last week took delivery of equipment for Verity, the most modern, secure voting technology available. Van Bergen, who tested Verity in his office first-hand, is relieved. "We didn't realize how awesome working with Hartsystems could be until we didn't have one." "Welcome back to the Hart family," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic. "We are happy to once again offer our superior support to Yamhill County with Hart's Verity solution. We look forward to a long partnership with the County." Van Bergen praised Hart's attentive customer service and responsiveness, saying, "It warms the heart to call and reach someone who knows the answer to your question, or knows how to find out what you need. Hart believes in follow-through. We had a painful experience with the other company, waiting four or five days for a call back and then not getting a real answer. It was a pattern. "Hart's customer service team, top to bottom, is simply superior," he added. Training for the May election will begin next week, and Van Bergen expects workers to "love the smoother, cleaner, easier-to-navigate" features of Verity. "We had an issue with the other system that did not easily show us which ballots had been adjudicated. We discovered that some ballots were checked and rechecked by the same staff over and over again. Verity lets users avoid that." Van Bergen is also looking forward to the trustworthiness of Verity, designed and manufactured in the U.S. "The security features with Verity are astonishing," he said. "It's comforting to know that not only are we getting a better-working system, but one that is more secure than we ever thought possible." As a growing number of jurisdictions in the Northwest and throughout the country look at new voting systems, Van Bergen offers advice. "I strongly recommend looking at the whole value proposition, considering your selection from start to finish. From the first phone call, through ballot design, to final adjudication. Having that value proposition may not mean the lowest initial price, but it is worth your time to check a few references before making a decision that you will regret for 10 years. "I've now worked with a startup and a 100-year-old company," said Van Bergen, who has been County Clerk for six years. "Some consider it fun and exciting to work with a startup, but you don't want elections to be fun and exciting. You want them to be accurate - safe, secure and dependable. We've made the right choice with Hart." Learn more about Verity: www.hartintercivic.com/voting-solutions/verityoverview/ About Hart InterCivic, Inc. Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full-service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. Hart's mission fuels its passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessible-and makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier. Only Hart offers a completely new, secure voting system with paper, hybrid and electronic options. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005895/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 10, 2019] Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Declined 4.6 Percent in First Quarter of 2019 Worldwide PC shipments totaled 58.5 million units in the first quarter of 2019, a 4.6 percent decline from the first quarter of 2018, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. "We saw the start of a rebound in PC shipments in mid-2018, but anticipation of a disruption by CPU shortages impacted all PC markets as vendors allocated to the higher-margin business and Chromebook segment," said Mikako Kitagawa, senior principal analyst at Gartner. "While the consumer market remained weak, the mix of product availability may have also hindered demand. In contrast, Chromebook shipments increased by double digits compared with the first quarter of 2018, despite the shortage of entry-level CPUs. Including Chromebook shipments, the total worldwide PC market decline would have been 3.5 percent in the first quarter of 2019." "The supply constraints affected the vendor competitive landscape as leading vendors had better allocation of chips and also began sourcing alternative CPUs from AMD (News - Alert)," said Ms. Kitagawa. "The top three vendors worldwide were still able to increase shipments despite the supply constraint by focusing on their high-end products and taking share from small vendors that struggled to secure CPUs. Moreover, the constraints resulted in the top vendors shifting their product mix to the high-end segment in order to deal with the constraint - which, along with favorable component price trends, should boost profit margins." The top three vendors - Lenovo (News - Alert), HP Inc. and Dell - accounted for 61.5 percent of global PC shipments in the first quarter of 2019, compared with 56.9 percent of shipments in the first quarter of 2018 (see Table 1). These top three vendors continued to gain share in the PC market as scale becomes a bigger factor in industry dynamics. Intel's (News - Alert) CPU supply constraint accelerated this trend. Table 1 Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q19 (Thousands of Units) Company 1Q19 Shipments 1Q19 Market Share (%) 1Q18 Shipments 1Q18 Market Share (%) 1Q19-1Q18 Growth (%) Lenovo 13,196 22.5 12,343 20.1 6.9 HP Inc. 12,826 21.9 12,727 20.7 0.8 Dell (News - Alert) 9,989 17.6 9,841 16.0 1.5 Apple 3,977 6.8 4,078 6.6 -2.5 Asus 3,603 6.2 3,887 6.3 -7.3 Acer (News - Alert) Group 3,322 5.7 3,829 6.2 -13.2 Others 11,610 19.8 14,671 23.9 -20.9 Total 58,523 100.0 61,375 100.0 -4.6 Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding. Source: Gartner (April 2019) Lenovo remained in the top spot in the first quarter of 2019 with the largest year-over-year growth among the top vendors. However, Lenovo benefited from the inclusion of Fujitsu's shipments from its 2Q18 joint venture. Lenovo's shipments increased in EMEA and Japan, where Fujitsu had a larger presence. HP Inc.'s worldwide PC shipments increased 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2019 versus the same period last year. The company saw an increase in desktop shipments while mobile PC shipments remained flat. HP Inc. recorded a small increase in shipments in EMEA, but experienced a decline in all other regions. Dell recorded its fifth consecutive quarter of PC shipment growth in the first quarter of 2019. Dell increased PC shipments in EMEA, Latin America and Japan, but declined in North America and Asia/Pacific. Desktop PC shipments continued to be strong for Dell in all regions, showing Dell's strength in the business segment. Business PC Demand Remained Strong Business PC demand remained strong throughout the first quarter of 2019 across most key regions. The PC refresh driven by Windows 10 has been a driving force of business PC growth over the past three years, but Gartner forecasts that 2019 will be the last year in which shipments will be impacted by this refresh. "While PC shipment results in the first quarter of 2019 indicated that the business PC segment still showed strong demand, weak mobile PC results could be the indicator that the Windows 10 refresh has nearly peaked," said Ms. Kitagawa. Regional Overview In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 11 million units in the first quarter of 2019, a 6.3 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2018. HP Inc. took the top spot in the U.S. based on shipments, as its market share increased to 29.4 percent. Dell took the No. 2 position as its shipments declined 7.1 percent, and its market share totaled 28.7 percent in the first quarter of 2019 (see Table 2) Table 2 Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q19 (Thousands of Units) Company 1Q19 Shipments 1Q19 Market Share (%) 1Q18 Shipments 1Q18 Market Share (%) 1Q19-1Q18 Growth (%) HP Inc. 3,243 29.4 3.404 28.9 -4.7 Dell. 3,162 28.7 3,404 28.9 -7.1 Apple 1,437 13.0 1,489 12.6 -3.5 Lenovo 1,497 13.6 1,619 13.7 -7.5 Microsoft 449 4.1 458 3.9 -2.0 Others 1,237 11.2 1,400 11.9 -11.7 Total 11,026 100.0 11,773 100.0 -6.3 Notes: Data includes desk-based PCs, notebook PCs and ultramobile premiums (such as Microsoft Surface), but not Chromebooks or iPads. All data is estimated based on a preliminary study. Final estimates will be subject to change. The statistics are based on shipments selling into channels. Numbers may not add up to totals shown due to rounding. Source: Gartner (April 2019) Japan was the only region to experience PC shipment growth in the first quarter of 2019 with a 6.8 percent increase year over year. This was primarily driven by a surge in business PC shipments. Latin America experienced the largest decline in the quarter with a 16.6 percent decrease in PC shipments. This decline was due to a lack of stability in political and economic environments, as well as the CPU supply constraints, which severally impacted the small system builders in the region. PC shipments in EMEA totaled 18 million units in the first quarter of 2019, a 2.2 percent decline year over year. Enterprise shipments increased as many companies moved ahead with Windows 10 deployments. However, consumer PC demand remained weak as users are not replacing older PCs and are not migrating to hybrid systems, which have not gained wide adoption in EMEA as users continue to prefer larger screens. PC shipments in Asia/Pacific totaled 20.1 million units in the first quarter of 2019, a 5.1 percent decline from the first quarter of 2018. This decline was largely due to weak PC demand in China. The consumer market across Asia/Pacific continued to see some growth driven by demand for thin and light ultramobile premium devices. Vendors such as Huawei and Xiaomi are pushing thin and light mobile PCs into the consumer market with aggressive pricing. These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program. This program offers a comprehensive and timely picture of the worldwide PC market, allowing product planning, distribution, marketing and sales organizations to keep abreast of key issues and their future implications around the globe. About Gartner Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), is the world's leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities today and build the successful organizations of tomorrow. Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We are a trusted advisor and objective resource for more than 15,000 organizations in more than 100 countries - across all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size. To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business, visit gartner.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190410005846/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 10, 2019] Transaction Data Systems (TDS) Appoints Maureen Brennan as the Company's Chief People Officer OCOEE, Fla., April 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Transaction Data Systems (TDS), parent company of the Rx30 and Computer-Rx pharmacy management systems, announced today that Maureen Brennan has been named the company's Chief People Officer (CPO). Brennan will lead this new function for the company providing oversight of human resources, including executive, leadership and associate development, compensation, benefits and designing strategies to attract world class talent for TDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for independent and community pharmacies. Chosen for her ability to support the company's focus on developing a world-class associate culture and promoting talent from within the business, Brennan brings over 30 years of senior human resources experience gained with market-leading companies including AT&T, TriZetto, and most recently Informatica. "I have worked with and known Maureen for over 12 years. Her focus on the associate first, along with her energy to develop the team to enable associate growth and development, is extraordinary," said TDS CEO, . "A huge part of our success will be based on finding the best people and growing them as we expand our company. In addition, Maureen excels at working with leaders to drive associate development strategies each and every day. Maureen's personal touch and care for our people will help drive our strategies around our associates as we leverage our position as the market leader in our industry." Brennan most recently served as a Chief Human Resource Officer for Informatica, where she built out a global workforce and drove an associate-first model across an organization comprised of more than 6,000 associates. Prior to Informatica, she was the Chief People Officer for TriZetto, where she led Human Resources for over a decade and helped double the organization while the company expanded its reach across the globe. "I am excited to join the TDS team, which has a focus on associate development as one of its key strategic pillars," said Brennan. "Our associates are our most important asset, and the new role of CPO demonstrates TDS' continued dedication to ongoing associate development and growth." About Transaction Data Systems (TDS) For the past 41 years, TDS has been dedicated to the success of independent pharmacy. TDS, with its family of products and services including Rx30, Computer-Rx, Enhanced Medication Services and Pharm Assess RBS, provides pharmacy systems and other innovative technology to the pharmacy industry. Its proven pharmacy management software and its continually growing and evolving products and services offer pharmacies the technology and support they need to succeed in a dynamic marketplace. Proudly supporting the largest install base of independent pharmacies in the industry with systems in all 50 states and the Virgin Islands, TDS is the unquestioned leader in Independent Pharmacy Management Software. For more information about TDS, please visit tdsclinical.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/transaction-data-systems-tds-appoints-maureen-brennan-as-the-companys-chief-people-officer-300830379.html SOURCE Transaction Data Systems [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 10, 2019] INVESTOR ALERT: Kirby McInerney LLP Reminds Investors That a Class Action Lawsuit Has Been Filed Against The Boeing Company and Encourages Investors to Contact the Firm Before June 10 The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of those who acquired The Boeing (News - Alert) Company ("Boeing" or the "Company") (NYSE: BA) securities during the period from January 8, 2019 through March 21, 2019 (the "Class Period"). Investors have until June 10, 2019 to apply to the Court to be appointed as lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Boeing made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that (i) the 737 MAX airplanes were in fact so less safe than previous models that they included undisclosed "hacks" in an attempt to overcome these safety concerns created by engineering compromises and lacked safety features which Boeing sold as "optional" add-ons which were designed to help address these safety concerns; (ii) that most airlines did not purchase these safety "options"; and (iii) that the FAA handed oversight and certification of Boeing's MCAS to Boeing, which had a clear conflict of interest as it was rushing the 737 MAX to market. On March 10, 2019, 157 people perished after an Ethiopian Airlines-operated Boeing 737 Max 8 jet crashed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia shortly after takeoff. In the wake of the crash, regulators in China and several other countries grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 jets. On this news, Boeing's stock price fell $47.13, approximately 11.2%, during the next two trading days to close at $375.41 on March 12, 2019. If you acquired Boeing securities during the Class Period, have information, or would like to learn more about these claims, please contact Thomas W. Elrod of Kirby McInerney at 212-371-6600, by email at [email protected], or by filling out this contact form, to discuss your rights or interests with respect to these matters without any cost to you. Kirby McInerney is a New York-based plaintiffs' law firm concentrating in securities, antitrust, and whistleblower litigation. The firm's efforts on behalf of shareholders in securities litigation have resulted in recoveries totaling billions of dollars. Additional information about the firm can be found at Kirby McInerney's website: www.kmllp.com. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190410005914/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 10, 2019] Skyscanner reveals the great public holiday hack, where Singapore travellers can get twice the holiday with only 8 days of leave SINGAPORE, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Skyscanner shares a public holiday hack for the summer that allows Singapore travellers to take a 16-day holiday with only 8 days of leave. This super long weekend is made possible, thanks to back-to-back public holidays in August, namely National Day and Hari Raya Haji. For Singaporeans looking to take advantage of this super long weekend, they have the option of spending their summer in Europe. Skyscanner looked at their data to uncover price trends for the summer months of July to September from 2016 to 2019 and found these interesting points. Europe is becoming more affordable -- According to Skyscanner's data, flights from Singapore to Europe are getting more affordable, with most European destinations recording a price drop of up to 50% from 2018 to 2019 Leading that price drop are the cities of Belgrade , Stuttgart , and Geneva , though popular destinations like Amsterdam , Berlin , Manchester and Reykjavik also saw substantial price drops of up to 15.7%. -- According to Skyscanner's data, flights from to are getting more affordable, with most European destinations recording a price drop of up to 50% from 2018 to 2019 You can enter Europe on the cheap -- Those looking to score the lowest-priced flights can look to Athens , Berlin and Madrid , which are the cheapest points of entry into Europe . These cities can serve as the launchpad to the rest of the continent with return prices starting at $588 . -- Those looking to score the lowest-priced flights can look to , and , which are the cheapest points of entry into . These cities can serve as the launchpad to the rest of the continent with return prices Now's the best time to book for Europe -- According to our best time to book data date. Travellers looking to take advantage of the August super long weekend can expect to save up to 31%. To help Singapore travellers plan, decide and book their holidays, Skyscanner launched their Summer in Europe campaign. It includes multi-city itineraries from the cheapest points of entry, Eastern European itineraries, and the scenic routes for a road trip in the European countryside. For more information and to help find cheap flight deals, visit Skyscanner's Summer in Europe page. About Skyscanner Skyscanner is a leading global travel search company, providing free search of flights, hotels and car hire?around the world. Founded in 2003, Skyscanner helps over 80 million people each month to find their travel options. Skyscanner is available in 30 languages. Skyscanner's highly-rated free mobile app has been downloaded over 70 million times. Skyscanner employs over 1000 staff and has eleven offices across the world: Barcelona, Beijing, Budapest, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Miami, Palo Alto, Shenzhen, Singapore and Sofia. Skyscanner is part of the Ctrip group. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190410/2432098-1 SOURCE Skyscanner [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Global Leaders Take the Stage at MWC Shanghai 2019 The GSMA today announced the newly introduced Digital Leaders Programme, the first event speakers, Masterclass Programme and new exhibitors and partners for MWC Shanghai 2019, taking place 26 - 28 June 2019 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). MWC Shanghai 2019 is set to attract more than 60,000 professionals and 550 leading companies from over 110 countries and territories across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent sectors. GSMA Launches Digital Leaders Programme The new Digital Leaders Programme is a C-Level programme that will bring business leaders from across the broader mobile ecosystem and vertical industries to tackle common challenges in the new digital era, and to advocate the best way to deliver future services to consumers. The Digital Leaders Programme will be launched on 11 April at the Formula 1 Shanghai International Circuit, senior executives from CITIC Telecom, Foxconn, HTC, Huawei, Jones Lang Lasalle China, McKinsey Digital in China, Nokia Bell, Qualcomm, Shanghai Mobile and ZTE, among others are confirmed to attend the launch event. In addition, a series of CEO activities including close-door roundtables, keynote presentations and networking will be held on 26 June, the first day of MWC19 Shanghai. More information about the programme, visit: www.mwcshanghai.com/experiences/digital-leaders-programme/. "To deliver the full potential of Intelligent Connectivity and to navigate the ever changing technology landscape, we need new digital leaders from all industries to help shape our vision of the future and to provide direction," said John Hoffman (News - Alert) CEO GSMA Ltd. "At MWC19 Shanghai, the GSMA is committed to convening influential global executives through Digital Leaders Programme where we will work together to make a positive impact on the digital future by reaching millions of people across the world with life-enhancing services." Global Leaders and CEOs Headline MWC19 Shanghai Conference Programme The MWC19 Shanghai conference programme is held over three days in Hall N5 of the SNIEC with global leaders and CEO speakers from more than 20 countries and regions. Topics include 5G, artificial intelligence, banking and telecoms convergence, blockchain, data trust and security, global devices, future mobility and smart cities, among others. Returning for a second year, The Leaders Stage programme will look into wide-ranging trends that are shaping the mobile future and impacting citizens' everyday lives, including digital business, humanitarian innovation, retail, tourism and travel. Confirmed keynote speakers: Hooi Ling Tan, Co-Founder, Grab Group Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman, Huawei Greg Wyler, Chairman, OneWeb Sigve Brekke, President & CEO, Telenor Group Xu Ziyang, CEO, ZTE CEOs at the Conference Summits and Leaders Stage: Gilad Garon, CEO, ASOCS Thu Nguyen, CEO & Co-Founder, Christina's Suresh Sidhu, CEO, edotco Francesco Lentini, Founder and CEO, Eloisa Technologies George Palamarizis, CEO, Erga Plus Nyein Chan Soe Win, CEO, Get Suren Pinto, CEO, Global Wavenet Lex Greensill, CEO, Greensill Capital Daehoon Kim, CEO, Iritech Aakash Ganju, CEO, Saathealth Glenn Lurie, CEO, Synchronoss Ling Wu, Founder and CEO, TBCASoft, Carrier Blockchain Study Group Enshen Huang, Founder and CEO, Xeniro Charles Miller, CEO, Ubiquitilink Other senior leaders from prominent companies will discuss key trends in the conference programme, including ABI Research, Blackmouth Game, China Mastercard, China Telecom, Cisco, Deloitte (News - Alert), DOCOMO, Ericsson, Forkast, Google, Intel, Klook, McAfee, NewH3C, Niometrics, Sterlite, Strelka, Syniverse, Turk Telekom, Vodafone, Xaxis, among others. For more information on the Conference Programme at MWC19 Shanghai, visit: www.mwcshanghai.com/conference-programmes/ INSEAD Provides Masterclass Programme for Business Leaders at MWC19 Shanghai GSMA is partnering with INSEAD, one of the world's leading graduate business schools with campuses in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, to provide the first Masterclass Programme at MWC19 Shanghai. Professor Thomas Mannarelli who specialises in innovation and leadership in organizations will be the instructor for this one-day programme. The Masterclass Programme is designed for middle to senior executives with responsibility to lead and implement changes in the organisations. Professor Mannarelli will guide the attendees through the challenges and opportunities they will face in the era of Intelligent Connectivity. Participants will gain a clear set of tools to create an action plan that they can execute in the workplace. For more information and application to the Masterclass Programme, please visit: www.mwcshanghai.com/experiences/learning/ Exhibition Showcases Mobile Innovation MWC Shanghai will once again showcase innovations from the mobile industry, as well as adjacent industries. New confirmed companies including Giesecke+Devrient, IDEMIA, Imagination Technologies, Oppo, Spirent (News - Alert), Viavi Solutions and vivo representing devices, security, identity, testing and optical technologies. For more information on the 2019 exhibitor list, visit: www.mwcshanghai.com/exhibition/exhibitors/ New to MWC19 Shanghai, the Future Mobility Zone will demonstrate smarter, cleaner and safer intelligent vehicles and cities. Companies showcasing in the zone include Helix Technologies, Imagination Technologies and UROS, alongside Guangzhou Global International Exhibition (GIE) - one of the leading international organisers in the automotive industry which will jointly present the development of the future mobility ecosystem with a number of intelligent connected automotive enterprise partners, including Baijieteng Technology, DeePhi, MapKing International, STARCART Technology, among others. The crowning technology showcase, the GSMA's Innovation City, will put a spotlight on how Intelligent Connectivity, the combination of 5G, IoT, AI and big data, is impacting and improving the lives of people and enterprises around the world. Visitors will experience technology from partners including BICS, Huawei, MyFC and Shanghai Ratta Electronic Technologies, among others. For more information, visit: www.mwcshanghai.com/exhibition/gsma-innovation-city/ The International Smart City Expo - Shanghai Pudong will be co-located with MWC Shanghai for the fourth consecutive year. The International Smart City Expo will examine the creation and development of smart cities, with a focus on mobile technologies, Internet of Things, smart home, smart buildings and smart education and the benefits of these technologies for Shanghai citizens. For more information on International Smart City Expo, visit: www.mwcshanghai.com/exhibition/smart-city-expo/ Register and Get Involved at MWC19 Shanghai Registration to attend MWC19 Shanghai is now open, for information on registration and pass types, please visit: www.mwcshanghai.com/attend/register/ For more information on MWC19 Shanghai, including how to attend, exhibit, partner or sponsor, visit www.mwcshanghai.com. Follow developments and updates on MWC19 Shanghai through our social media channels - follow us on Twitter at @GSMA and use #MWC19, get regular updates through our LinkedIn (News - Alert) Showcase Page at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mwcshanghai/, and follow us on Facebook (News - Alert) at www.facebook.com/mwcshanghai. In China, you can follow us on Sina Weibo http://weibo.com/mwcshanghai or search "GSMA_MWCS" in WeChat. -ENDS- About the GSMA The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with nearly 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces the industry-leading MWC events held annually in Barcelona, Los Angeles and Shanghai, as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences. For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005252/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Aerospike Expands Executive Bench; Accelerates Business, Product and Industry Momentum Aerospike Inc., the developer of the world's leading enterprise-grade, non-relational NoSQL database, today announced strong business momentum in the first quarter of 2019. Aerospike has also hired three experienced technology executives to join its leadership team. Lenley Hensarling joins Aerospike as Chief Strategy Officer, Bill Odell, as Chief Marketing Officer and Alan Cyron, as Chief Financial Officer. The company also announced strong industry analyst recognition from Forrester and Gartner, reiterated its support for Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory and provided details on Aerospike Summit (May 1-2 in San Francisco). Strong Business Momentum (News - Alert) in Q1 2019 Aerospike had another strong quarter in Q1 2019, continuing its pace of double-digit revenue growth in the quarter compared to Q1 2018. Customers' continued confidence in Aerospike's ability to deliver strategic value is reflected in a sustained customer retention rate that exceeds 90 percent. Annual expansion revenue growth rate from existing customers was 25 percent. "Aerospike's unique value is the ability to fuel data in real-time to mission-critical applications at tremendous scale, and at a fraction of the cost of other solutions," said John Dillon, chief executive officer, Aerospike. "As business and consumer activity increasingly occurs on the edge - at any time, from anywhere - enterprises need to combine real-time decisioning and operational excellence. Aerospike customers often cite our unrivaled blend of availability, speed, scalability and low latency as important factors in their market success." Click to Tweet: @AerospikeDB expands leadership with three new executive hires; accelerates product and industry momentum: https://www.aerospike.com/news/press-release/expands-executive-bench-accelerates-momentum/ #database #realtime #AerospikSummit19 Expanded Executive Bench Lenley Hensarling was previously Senior Vice President of Strategy and Product Management at EnterpriseDB. He began as an engineer writing code and moved on to hold leadership positions in engineering and product and company management. Hensarling has worked at both start-ups and some of the world's largest software companies, holding product and management roles at Novell (News - Alert), JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Oracle. Bill Odell was previously Vice President of Marketing at SonicWall, Inc. He began his career in marketing and product management at Sun Microsystems and has held executive level positions at a number of start-ups and public companies including Latitude Communications, Interlace Systems, Helpstream, Cisco Systems and Dell Software. Alan Cyron was previously Chief Financial Officer at Engine Yard. He is an accomplished CFO and senior executive with over 25 years experience as CFO for various private and public companies including Engine Yard, Navis, Axis (News - Alert) Systems, MobileAria and Paragon Trade Brands. Prior to becoming a CFO, Cyron was a Managing Director in the corporate finance group at a predecessor of JPMorgan Chase advising public and private companies. Product and Analyst Momentum In March 2019, Aerospike was named a "Strong Performer" in the Forrester Wave: Big Data NoSQL, Q1 2019. Aerospike was one of three vendors to improve both its Current Offering and Strategy scores from the previous report. The company received top marks for Data Consistency, Performance, Scalability, Global Distributed and High availability/disaster recovery. Also in March 2019, Aerospike received a combined 4.6/5 score in the latest evaluation from Gartner Peer Insights in the Operational Database Management System category. The score includes 16 perfect 5/5 rankings. Earlier this month, Intel launched the Optane DC Persistent Memory Module (PMM). Aerospike became the first commercially available open database supporting this Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory with the release of Aerospike Enterprise Edition 4.5 in December 2018. Aerospike Summit '19 Aerospike hosts its second annual Aerospike Summit next month (May 1-2, 2019 at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco). Aerospike Summit is for CIOs, Chief Data Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Business Leaders, IT Leaders, Architects, Technologists and those looking to learn about the latest developments and successes using Aerospike database solutions and technology to improve their businesses and operations. Speakers include thought leaders from Airtel, PayPal (News - Alert), The Trade Desk, Wayfair, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Nielsen and many others. Register here for Aerospike Summit '19. About Aerospike Aerospike is trusted by leading enterprises around the world to help them build and deploy modern data architecture solutions with confidence. The Aerospike enterprise-grade non-relational NoSQL database helps companies power mission-critical, strategic operational applications that make digital transformation possible. Powered by a patented Hybrid Memory Architecture and autonomic cluster management, Aerospike is used by enterprises in the financial services, banking, telecommunications, technology, retail, e-commerce, ad tech, martech and gaming industries, and is well-suited for fraud prevention, digital wallet, online brokerage, real-time analytics and other applications that require extreme uptime, performance and scalability. Aerospike customers include Adobe (News - Alert), Bharti Airtel, FlipKart, Kayak, Nielsen, and Snap. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. For more information, please visit https://www.aerospike.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005139/en/ [April 11, 2019] Envision and Thai Energy Giant PTT Sign MOU to Collaborate on New Energy and Digital Transformation SHANGHAI, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 8th, 2019, Envision signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with PTT Public Company Ltd to collaborate on multiple initiatives revolving around new energy and digital transformation. Headquartered in Bangkok, PTT is the largest conglomerate in Thailand, a fully integrated energy company which engages in oil and gas, coal, electricity, and infrastructure businesses. Both firms will collaborate in new energy technology and business development. Envision will work with PTT in digital transformation by adopting AIoT technology and implementing AIoT Platform EnOSTM to realize benefits like improvement in time to market and reduction in total cost of ownership. Additionally, both firms are set to evaluate joint energy assets investment and undertake smart energy pilot projects together. Among all, the key ones are battery business, renewable energy development, material supply for clean technologies, and electric vehicle related businesses. Mr. Lei Zhang, Founder & CEO of Envision Group said: "EnOSTM, the AIoT operating system, is the connector between the OT world and IT world. Based on EnOSTM, Envision is confident that we could support PTT to accelerate its digital transformation initiative especially in the new energy and electrification initiatives, thus improve the efficiency in exploring the business opportunities in new energy area." "PTT is always at the forefront of innovations and has now planned to increase its long-term investments in new businesses including venturing into the electricity value chain and clean energy business, and accelerating digital transformation. We also play a big part in Thailand 4.0 strategy by leading the smart city development in the Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi). In this partnershipwith Envision, which is proven to be an ever-innovating digital energy company, we are very confident that our progress in these initiatives will be accelerated," mentioned Mr. Wittawat Svasti-Xuto, Chief Technology and Engineering Officer of PTT. Envision already has extensive experience helping enterprises in their digital transformation journey, from renewables to conventional industries to smart cities. "We believe both PTT and Envision have similar vision and values in new energy and digital transformation. With contemporary experience like Smart Nation DECADA project in Singapore, we are confident that we could add value to PTT's smart city initiative in Thailand," Zhang Lei added. While this exciting partnership is going to create mutual benefit to both firms, it carries a larger objective to provide cleaner energy and higher living standards to Thailand and the regional community. About Envision Envision is a leading digital energy company with deep industry expertise. It owns the world-leading AIoT Operating System, EnOS, which currently manages 100 GW of energy assets globally. By integrating with technology partners such as Sonnen, ChargePoint, AutoGrid, and Bazefield, Envision is able to deliver a compressive energy IoT platform and smart city ecosystem. Founded in 2007, Envision's heritage is in the wind sector and is currently one of the industry's leading wind technology companies. Headquartered in Shanghai, Envision has regional offices across Asia, Europe, North and South Americas and has established global R&D and engineering centers in Singapore, Denmark, Germany, the United States and Japan. Envision's mission is to "solve the challenges for a sustainable future"; the company is committed to creating a world of beautiful energy where everyone has access to clean, secure and affordable energy. For more information, visit: http://www.envision-group.com For all media communication, please contact: Kunming Xu [email protected] About PTT PTT Public Company Limited or "PTT", the largest conglomerate in Thailand, is a fully integrated energy company which engages from upstream to downstream petroleum, coal, electricity, and infrastructure businesses. PTT was listed in Thai stock market on October 1, 2001. As a Thai Premier Multinational Energy Company, PTT has now planned to increase its long-term investments in new businesses in the New S-Curve industries. The move is in response to the government's Thailand 4.0 policy, which seeks not only to develop existing S-Curve industries, but also build New S-Curve industries for the country. For more information, visit: http://www.pttplc.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/envision-and-thai-energy-giant-ptt-sign-mou-to-collaborate-on-new-energy-and-digital-transformation-300830605.html SOURCE Envision Digital [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Shikun & Binui to Launch Commercial Operations of Negev Energy Thermo-solar Power Plant at Ashalim AIRPORT CITY, Israel, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Shikun & Binui Ltd. (TASE: SKBN.TA), a global construction, infrastructure and real estate company, today announced that it has completed the construction of the largest renewable energy project in Israel and one of the largest and most complex in the world. Starting from today, the Negev Energy Thermo-Solar power plant at Ashalim, will begin supplying clean energy, on a daily basis, to Israel's National Grid. The launch follows Negev Energy's construction and test of the facility, and its successful completion of all the Israel Electric Company's acceptance tests. Following this, it received all the required approvals, including a permanent license to produce electricity from Israel Electric Authority. In addition, the commercial operations of the thermo-solar facility, which is located near Ashalim in Israel's Negev region, will also begin tomorrow. Negev Energy, a company owned by Shikun & Binui Energy (50%), the Noy Infrastructure Fund (40%) and the Spanish firm TSK (10%), won the Government tender in 2013 and signed a 25-year concession agreement to plan, finance, build, operate and maintain the 110MW thermo-solar electric generation plant. The facility will supply enough clean electricity to Israel's National Grid, to power the needs of approximately 70,000 households. The plant covers over an area of approximately 4,000 dunam. It is made up of approximately 16,000 parabolic troughs and half a million concave mirrors, used to transform solar energy into steam, that drives electricity-generating turbines. In addition, the plant features a unique molten salt energy storage system that enables the plant to supply electricity at full capacity for 4.5 additional hours each day after sunset, thus achieving an especially high level of efficiency. Investment in the construction of the power plant totaled approximately USD 1 billion. The project provided employment to hundreds of workers, contractors and suppliers, most of whom were residents of Israel's Negev region. Tamir Cohen, Chairman of Shikun & Binui, commented, "We are proud to have reached the successful completion of the construction of another groundbreaking mega-project. This is representative of Shikun & Binui's strategy, with the development and construction of meaningful mega-projects, meeting the needs of Israel and the world at large." Moshe Lahmani, Shikun & Binui's CEO, added,"Once again, Shikun & Binui, is leading and partnering in revolutionary projects that are moving Israel forward. Today, we are leading the renewable energy market in Israel in which private concessionaires produce clean energy in commercial quantities. It is also an opportunity for Shikun & Binui to again promote the economic expansion of the Negev." Didi Paz, CEO of Negev Energy and COO of Shikun & Binui, commented, "Negev Energy and the project owners today demonstrated their exceptional capabilities with the completion of one of the most challenging projects ever attempted in Israel, both from a technological, engineering and financial point of view. This project is an excellent example of a successful cooperation between Israel's private and public sectors." Pini Cohen, Chairman of the Noy Fund, added, "At the Noy Fund, we are proud to have completed another successful thermo-solar project, the second one completed this week. The Ashalim project uses complex and breakthrough technology in a field that the State of Israel has chosen as one of its strategic national goals." About the Shikun & Binui Group The Shikun & Binui Group is a global construction and infrastructure company that operates in Israel and internationally in seven segments: 1) infrastructure and construction contracting outside of Israel; 2) infrastructure and construction contracting within Israel; 3) real estate development within Israel; 4) real estate development outside of Israel; 5) renewable energy; and 6) concessions. The Group's activities focus on large, highly complex projects carried out for entities in private and public sectors with a focus on sustainability. This summary announcement was prepared solely for the convenience of the reader and does not replace Shikun & Binui Ltd.'s (hereafter "the Company") full report. The information contained in this announcement is, by its nature, incomplete. All of its contents are provided as a supplement to the Company's report, and are subject to the declarations therein stated. This announcement includes forecasts, assessments, estimates and other information relating to the Company or its subsidiaries, or to other parties or to future events and matters, the extent of whose realization is not certain and is not under the sole control of the Company (forward-looking information, as defined in the Securities Law-1968). The key facts and data serving as the basis for this information are facts and data, among others, related to the current status of the Company and its businesses, facts and data relating to the current status of the operating segments in which the Company engages in its areas of operation, and other macroeconomic facts and data known to the Company on the preparation date of this presentation. It is understood that forward-looking information does not constitute a fact and is based solely on subjective assessments. Forward-looking information is uncertain and for the most part, is not under the Company's control. The realization or non-realization of the forward-looking information will be influenced, among others, by the risk factors that characterize the Company's operations, as well as developments in the general environment and external factors that impact the Company's operations. The Company's future results and achievements could differ significantly from those presented in this presentation. The Company is not obligated to update or modify the said forecast or assessment, and is not obligated to update this announcement. This announcement does not constitute an offer to purchase the Company's securities or an invitation to receive such offers. An investment in securities in general, and in the Company in particular, carries risk. One must take into account that past data do not necessarily indicate future performance. IR Contacts: Company Inbal Uliansky +972(3)6301058 [email protected] shikunbi[email protected] External IR Ehud Helft/Kenny Green GK Investor Relations +1-617-418-3096 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shikun--binui-to-launch-commercial-operations-of-negev-energy-thermo-solar-power-plant-at-ashalim-300830616.html SOURCE Shikun & Binui Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] GrandPad Named One of the Most Innovative Companies by Angel Capital Association ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- GrandPad, the first tablet-based solution designed exclusively for seniors, has been nominated to receive the prestigious Luis Villalobos Award, which honors companies that have been funded by Angel Capital Association (ACA) members. As a finalist, GrandPad will be presented, along with two other companies, at the 2019 ACA Summit in Chicago on April 25. The award is in honor of Luis Villalobos, who founded the Tech Coast Angels. Angel Capital Association is the world's largest angel professional development organization. Among its membership of 14,000+ accredited angel investors, is Tech Coast Angels - the leading source of funding to early stage companies in Southern California. John Harbison, of Tech Coast Angels, nominated GrandPad for the award. "As Luis taught me, the key to a great investment is solving significant pain points in ways that others have not," says Harbison, "Technology is the culprit behind loneliness in older adults and GrandPad is the solution with an interface and experience meticulously designed wih their needs in mind." "We are thrilled to be nominated for the Luis Villalobos Award and be among three finalists being honored for ingenuity, creativity and innovation," says Scott Lien, co-founder and CEO of GrandPad. "Any opportunity we have to share our vision, which is to live in a world where no seniors are lonely or isolated and have the opportunity to Live Grand, is an honor." To learn more about GrandPad, visit GrandPad.net and to see details about the Luis Villalobos award, click here . ABOUT GRANDPAD Based in Orange, California USA GrandPad is a privately held company with a mission to improve the lives of millions of seniors by reconnecting them with family, friends, and caregivers. The GrandPad comes ready to use out of the box and features a secure private family network and premium US based customer service. There are no confusing buttons, no passwords or pop-up ads, and wireless connectivity and security are built into the deviceeliminating the risks of scams and hacks. Users can play games, listen to music, and enjoy many other exclusive apps. Caregivers/family members can video chat, receive voice emails, and share photos with seniors through GrandPad's companion app on iOS and Android. Contact: Stevan Brown Telephone: 904.226.8782 Email: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grandpad-named-one-of-the-most-innovative-companies-by-angel-capital-association-300830202.html SOURCE GrandPad [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Health Records on iPhone Now Available to Patients of Community Health Systems Affiliated Hospitals Community Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CYH) announced today that many of its affiliated hospitals now support Health Records on iPhone, which brings together hospitals, clinics and the existing Apple (News - Alert) Health app to make it easy for patients to see their available medical data from multiple providers whenever they choose. Approximately 100 CHS-affiliated hospitals are participating to help patients easily aggregate medical data. Patients who have received care from a CHS-affiliated participating hospital can use their iPhones to securely receive and store important details from their medical records, including allergies, conditions, immunizations, labs, medications, procedures and vitals. Patients can also receive notifications whenever their data is updated. "At CHS, we are rapidly expanding our digital health and consumer engagement strategies to provide patients with more convenience, more information, and more control over their healthcare experiences," said Lynn Simon, M.D, president of clinical operations and chief medical officer of Community Health Systems. "By giving our patients an easy way to receive and track their medical information, we believe we also are giving them one more way to be active participants in managing their health, which can lead to better outcomes." Previously, patients' medical records were held in multiple locations, reuiring patients to log into each care provider's website and patient portal and piece together their health information manually. Now, medical information from each patient's participating providers is organized into a single view with all of the available information stored together. "Since most people keep their mobile devices with them, this means all of that medical information is accessible whenever it is needed. We are literally putting health data in the palm of the patient's hand, which can be critical in an emergency and also enables patients to have more informed conversations with all of their physicians," said Dr. Simon. Apple worked with the healthcare community to take a consumer-friendly approach and created Health Records based on FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), a standard for transferring electronic medical records. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with the user's iPhone (News - Alert) passcode, Touch ID or Face ID. For more information on Health Records, visit: https://www.apple.com/healthcare/health-records/ About Community Health Systems, Inc. Community Health Systems, Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded hospital companies in the United States and a leading operator of general acute care hospitals in communities across the country. The Company, through its subsidiaries, owns, leases or operates 106 affiliated hospitals in 18 states with an aggregate of approximately 17,000 licensed beds. The Company's headquarters are located in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb south of Nashville. Shares in Community Health Systems, Inc. are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CYH." More information about the Company can be found on its website at www.chs.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005103/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Vlocity Hires Industry Veterans to Expand Its Leadership Team SAN FRANCISCO, April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vlocity, Inc. , a leading industry cloud software company and Forbes Cloud 100 company, today announced the addition of several accomplished technology executives to its leadership team, including Mike Kourey as chief financial officer (CFO), Spencer Earp as senior vice president of EMEA sales, and L. David Kingsley as chief people officer. The new executives bring deep expertise in scaling global enterprise software companies, and will help drive Vlocitys next stage of growth as a values-led company driven by customer, employee and partner success. Mike Kourey joins as CFO, leading Vlocitys global finance, IT, business operations and corporate development functions. Kourey brings more than 25 years of financial and strategic leadership experience as an executive, board member and advisor at high-growth SaaS, networking and communications companies, most recently as CFO of Medallia. In addition to shepherding five successful IPOs Okta, RingCentral, Aruba Networks, Riverbed Networks and Polycom Mike has significant experience executing venture raises at increasing valuations and driving significant revenue and customer growth. Spencer Earp joins as Vlocitys sales leader across Europe, Middle East and Africa, where he is responsible for driving growth and customer success in each of Vlocitys five vertical markets. Earp joins Vlocity from ServiceMax, a leading Salesforce partner, where he was most recently senior vice president of worldwide sales and built its sales organization leading up to and through the companys acquisition by GE Digital. Spencer is a veteran of the software industry, including Oracle and Siebel Systems, with a proven track record building teams around a shared vision for customer success. L. David Kingsley joins as senior vice president and chief people officer (CPO), responsible for Vlocitys Employee Success and Real Estate and Workplace Services organizations. Kingsley joins from MuleSoft where he served as head of Global People & Places prior to and through the companys acquisition by Salesforce. Previously, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Salesforce, including senior vice president of Employee Success for Strategy & Operations. Kingsley is a passionate champion of employee success, with prior experience at Accenture and Booz Allen. We are thrilled to add proven leaders like Mike, Spencer and David to our accomplished leadership team, said David Schmaier, Vlocity founder and CEO. Together they will help us guide Vlocitys rapid growth and fuel customer, employee and partner success around the world. As were proving every day, the best customer experiences are industry-specific and Cloud 2.0 will be led by modern digital applications designed for the unique processes, best practices, customer needs and regulatory requirements of each industry. Additional Information: For more information on Vlocitys executive team, please visit https://vlocity.com/company/leadership-team . Vlocity recently secured $60 million in Series C financing to accelerate digital transformation and customer experience improvements across multiple vertical industries. The latest financing brings Vlocitys total capital raised to $163 million. For more information, please read Vlocitys funding news release . Follow Vlocity on LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Instagram , or Vlocitys corporate blog . Vlocity adds veteran technology leadership to drive next stage of #industrycloud growth -- welcome Mike Kourey, @SpencerSVMX and @ldkings #valuesdriven #scale About Vlocity, Inc. Vlocity is a leader in industry-specific cloud and mobile software, driving digital transformation for the worlds largest companies. A Forbes Cloud 100 company, Vlocity is an industry cloud pioneer built in partnership with Salesforce, the global leader in CRM. Vlocitys cloud and mobile applications transform customer processes and experiences in the Communications & Media, Insurance & Financial Services, Health, Energy & Utilities, and Government & Non-Profit industries. Vlocity is a values-led company committed to customer, partner and employee success. Learn more at www.vlocity.com . 2019. Vlocity, Inc. All rights reserved. Vlocity and the Vlocity logo are registered trademarks of Vlocity, Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Salesforce and others are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. Media Contacts Big Valley Marketing Dave Reddy [email protected] +1 650-868-4659 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] ForgeRock Launches Identity Live Series in Nashville - April 30 and May 1; Keynote by Erik Qualman, Best Selling Author on Digital Leadership SAN FRANCISCO, April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ForgeRock, the leading platform provider of digital identity management solutions, today announced keynote and customer presentations for its upcoming Identity Live Summit. The first of its global series will be held in Nashville, Tennessee on April 30 and May 1. The first day will feature Erik Qualman, #1 best-selling author on digital leadership, as the keynote speaker, as well as many ForgeRock customers who will discuss their use of identity management to enable and secure their digital transformation. To register or to view the agenda, please visit the Identity Live website . Identity Live brings together hundreds of business leaders and identity management professionals to discuss and advance winning strategies. The first day features ForgeRock CEO Fran Rosch along with the product leadership team for a look at the trends and market drivers in customer experience, security and identity, and an extensive look at the ForgeRock roadmap. Customers who will present on their ForgeRock journey include: Dereck Henson, IAM Architect and Sudarshan Rangarajan, IAM Platform Architect, both of USAA Sean Willeford, Global Identity Security Architecture & Engineering of Worldpay Sean Carrick, VP Security & Solutions, LPL Financial Vijay Challa, Software Architect, Verizon Chris Thomas, CTO of Moodys Analytics Accelerator, Moodys Day two of Identity Live is te UnSummit, a day for identity and IT professionals to have technical deep dives and birds-of-a-feather sessions with other attendees and ForgeRock developers. Identity Live Conferences coming to Nashville, Berlin, Sydney and London ForgeRock is pleased to announce the return of its wildly successful Identity Live Summits. The first summit will be April 30 & May 1 in Nashville, TN with events also taking place in Germany, Australia and the UK later in the year. These events enable customers, prospects and partners to interact with the most influential, innovative identity professionals and IT executives - all focused on accelerating their digital transformation journey. To register or learn more information, visit the Identity Live website . About ForgeRock ForgeRock is the Digital Identity Management company transforming the way organizations build trust and interact securely with customers, employees, devices, and things. Organizations adopt the ForgeRock Identity Platform as their digital identity system of record to monetize customer relationships, address stringent regulations for privacy and consent (GDPR, HIPAA, FCC privacy, etc.), and leverage the Internet-of-Things. ForgeRock serves hundreds of brands, including Morningstar, Vodafone, GEICO, TomTom, and Pearson, as well as governments such as Norway, New Zealand, and Belgium, among many others. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, ForgeRock has offices in Austin, London, Bristol, Grenoble, Munich, Paris, Oslo, Singapore, Sydney and Vancouver, Washington. ForgeRock is privately held, backed by leading global venture capital firms Accel Partners, Foundation Capital, Meritech Capital and KKR. For more information and free downloads, visit www.forgerock.com or follow ForgeRock on social media: Facebook ForgeRock |Twitter @ForgeRock | LinkedIn ForgeRock | Copyright 2019. ForgeRock is a registered trademark of ForgeRock, Inc. All rights reserved. Contact: Dave De Jear ForgeRock Communications [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Progressive Care Inc. Garners Coverage in International Business Times MIAMI, April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD), a personalized healthcare services and technology company, today announced that it has garnered media coverage in International Business Times in an op-ed written by S. Parikh Mars, CEO of Progressive Care Inc. titled, Opioid Epidemic: 21st Century Thinking Needed to Solve a 21st Century Problem. It is a true honor to have the opportunity to write about a subject very close to my heart. Progressive Care is doing everything in our power to address the opioid crisis, said S. Parikh Mars, CEO of Progressive Care Inc. Progressive Care aims to provide alternatives to opioids that suit each patients needs in hopes to lower our patient's dependence on opioids and fight the epidemic. In the opinion piece titled Opioid Epidemic: 21st Century Thinking Needed To Solve A 21st Century Problem , published April 8, 2019 in International Business Times, Mars discusses that in order to address the opioid epidemic, we must first understand it. Mars says, Many states have implemented drastic opioid restrictions, manufacturers and pharmaceutical wholesale vendors have limited supply, pain clinics have shut down and doctors willing to prescribe opioids are fewer and further between. Yet, the problem persists across large swaths of the country and the number of people delivering innovative solutions is dwindling. However, the battle is not lost. The solutions we seek may be right under our noses. In the article Mars expressed we need a new way of thinking about pain to begin with. Currently, pain is evaluated on a 1-10 scale to determine severity and medication is prescribed to address this subjective assessment. However, not all pain is created equally, and no two people feel the same pain the same way. She concludes that To end this crisis, we need to use personalized medicine and a more nuanced view of pain and its treatment. We need to think of pain management in terms of effectiveness and not in terms of strength, choosig non-addictive medicines to address patient-specific pain before resorting to opioid therapies. Progressive Care has responded to the opioid epidemic by providing patients with an alternative to opioids, a compound lotion to suit each patients needs. The cream hits the target area and helps to relieve pain quickly without having to interact with other medications, and without affecting the liver, and kidney, reducing the risk of addiction or death from taking opioids. Progressive Care Inc.s wholly owned subsidiary PharmCo, LLC is in the top 10% in the nation evaluated by Humana Inc. and will continue to provide top-of-line services to their patients to fight the opioid epidemic. The recent media coverage comes after the companys efforts to provide its network with more healthcare informational resources through PharmCo Pharmacy . Additional commentary from Progressive Cares CEO about the company and industry as a whole can be found on the Progressive Care blog and PharmCo blog . For more immediate updates on the companys media coverage, connect with Progressive Care and PharmCo on social media: Progressive Care Inc. https://www.facebook.com/ProgressiveCareUS/ https://twitter.com/ProgressCareUS PharmCo, LLC https://www.facebook.com/pharmcorx/ https://twitter.com/PharmCoRx About Progressive Care Inc. Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD), through its PharmCo, LLC, is a South Florida health services organization and provider of prescription pharmaceuticals, compounded medications, provider of tele-pharmacy services, the sale of anti-retroviral medications, medication therapy management (MTM), the supply of prescription medications to long-term care facilities, and health practice risk management. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Statements contained herein that are not based upon current or historical fact are forward-looking in nature and constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements reflect the Companys expectations about its future operating results, performance, and opportunities that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. These statements include but are not limited to statements regarding the intended terms of the offering, closing of the offering and use of any proceeds from the offering. When used herein, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, upcoming, plan, target, intend and expect and similar expressions, as they relate to Progressive Care Inc., its subsidiaries, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Company and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. Public Relations Contact: Kathleen Gonzales, CMW Media [email protected] www.cmwmedia.com Investor Relations Contact: Armen Karapetyan, Progressive Care Senior Advisor Business Development [email protected] www.progressivecareus.com www.pharmcopharmacy.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Winners Named for the 2019 IDC Smart Cities North America Awards After receiving over 4,100 public voters and scoring by an international panel of judges, IDC Government Insights today announced the winners of the second annual IDC (News - Alert) Smart Cities North America Awards (SCNAA). The awards were designed to recognize the progress North American communities have made in executing Smart Cities projects, as well as provide a forum for sharing best practices to help accelerate Smart City development in the region. Winners were named in 12 categories with a tie in both Transportation Infrastructure and Urban Planning and Land Use. Over 70 cities/counties were represented, underscoring the overwhelming success and efficiency of Smart City projects implemented across the country. Winners will be honored at the Smart Cities New York conference, May 14th at Manhattan's Pier 36. To learn more about the event, please visit https://smartcitiesny.com. To learn more about these winning projects, please visit https://www.idc.com/insights#government-smart_cities_awards. ClicktoTweet: Winners Named for the 2019 IDC Smart Cities North America Awards http://bit.ly/scnaa19 #IDCSmartCities19 Winners in the SCNAA illustrate best practice examples of urban innovation with a particular focus on the use of technology (cloud, platforms, analytics, IoT, mobile solutions) and data, unique partnerships, funding models, and/or community involvement. This year's winners by category are: Administration Get It Done Expansion - San Diego, CA (News - Alert) Civic Engagement Smart Living in the Windy City - Chicago, IL Digital Equity and Accessibility NYCx Co-Labs in Brownsville - Borough of Brooklyn and Neighborhood of Brownsville, NY Economic Development, Tourism, Arts, Libraries Culture, Open Spaces Economic, Mobility and Safety through Data Driven Operations Management - Las Vegas, NV Education Chattanooga Smart Community Collaborative (CSCC) - Chattanooga, TN Public Safety and Emergency Management New Orleans Real Time Crime Center - New Orleans, LA Smart Buildings Houston Smart Buildings - Houston, TX Smart Water Beaver Creek CSO Abatement and Flood Mitigation Program: Creating Smart Infrastructure for the Management of Wet Weather Flows - Albany, NY Sustainable Infrastructure ShakeAlertLA Mobile Application - City and County of Los Angeles CA Transportation - Connected & Autonomous Vehicles, Public Transit, Ride-Hailing/Ride-Sharing Accelerating Response for Safer Communities - A Novel Spatially-Aware (News - Alert) Approach to Emergency Vehicle Pre-emption for First Responders - San Jose, CA Transportation Infrastructure (Tie) Open Government Coalition - Waze WARP - Louisville, KY Delta Air Lines Launches First Curb-to-Gate Biometric Terminal in the U.S. - Maynard H. Jackson International Terminal (Terminal F), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, GA Urban Planning and Land Use (Tie) StreetCaster - Boston, MA Emergency Operations Situational Analysis Smart Dashboard - Raleigh, NC To read more details about the winning projects, please visit https://www.idc.com/insights#government-smart_cities_awards . "We continue to be impressed with the quality of projects being implemented by cities and their partners in North America. This second year of applicants demonstrated that cities are being highly innovative in terms of partnership and funding models and using technology to achieve specific outcomes," said Ruthbea Yesner, vice president, IDC Government Insights and Smart Cities and Communities. "This year we are working more closely with the finalists and winners to bring these city leaders together to share lessons learned and best practices over the course of the year. We are thrilled to promote these successes and offer a forum for this community to help other municipalities implement similar projects." For additional information about these awards or to speak with Ruthbea Yesner, please contact Sarah Murray at 781-378-2674 or [email protected]. About IDC Government Insights IDC Government Insights assists government policy, program, and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of government and IT industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing the Federal/Central and local/provincial Governments. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market. IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading media, data and marketing services company that activates and engages the most influential technology buyers. For more information, please visit www.idc-gi.com, email [email protected], or call 703-485-8300. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005084/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Alexandra Adamson joins Women In Sales (WIS) full time as Executive Director NEW YORK, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Women In Sales (WIS), a digital platform dedicated to developing the next generation of female sales leaders, is excited to welcome Alexandra Adamson as Executive Director. WIS is a division of CloserIQ, a modern recruitment firm offering a holistic talent solution for building engaged, diverse and high-performing sales teams. Adamson spent the past year as Head of Community for WIS, building the community in a part-time capacity. In her new full-time role, she is expanding WIS globally while also establishing a new human capital consulting practice at CloserIQ focused on diversity in sales. "Modern sales organizations are thinking about talent acquisition and retention in a much more integrated and sophisticated way," said Jordan Wan, Founder/CEO of CloserIQ. "With Alex's industry expertise from multiple vantage points, we believe she is the right leader to help unify WIS and CloserIQ to provide employers a comprehensive solution to building high-performing sales teams." Previously, Adamson was the Director of Talent at Bowery Capital, a seed-stage VC fund where she worked with the firm's entrepreneurs on human caital strategies including talent architecture, executive search, performance management, and compensation design. She began her career in talent at Betts Recruiting, scaling sales teams in the Bay Area. "WIS began as a passion project, so the chance to take this full time is a dream come true," said Alexandra Adamson. "Companies are realizing that talent doesn't end at acquisition, and I'm confident the work we're doing through WIS and CloserIQ will create an integrated approach to the employee journey." About WIS Women In Sales is a digital platform dedicated to developing the next generation of female sales leaders. Our mission is to combine the best online and offline career resources to connect members, share knowledge, and grow community. To see how WIS can help you or your company, visit womeninsales.io About CloserIQ CloserIQ is a modern recruitment firm that connects top sales talent to the world's fastest growing companies. Combining industry expertise and innovative technology, we help clients align their sales strategy with talent that produce extraordinary results. Recommended by leading VC funds and 350+ employers globally, CloserIQ offers a comprehensive talent solution for building engaged, diverse and high-performing revenue functions. Learn more about CloserIQ at closeriq.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alexandra-adamson-joins-women-in-sales-wis-full-time-as-executive-director-300830156.html SOURCE CloserIQ [April 11, 2019] Former Senator Kelly Ayotte to Join Blackstone's Board of Directors Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced that former Senator Kelly Ayotte will join its board of directors effective May 13, 2019. Ayotte represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate from 2011 to 2016, serving on the Senate Budget, Commerce, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Armed Services, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Aging Committees. She chaired the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation Operations. Prior to her election in 2010, Ayotte served as New Hampshire's first female Attorney General, holding the position under both Republican and Democratic governors. She previously served as Deputy Attorney General, Chief of the Homicide Prosecution Unit and as Legal Counsel to Governor Craig Benson in New Hampshire. Ayotte began her career as a law clerk to the New Hampshire Supreme Court and as an associate at the law firm McLane Middleton. Commenting on the appointment, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, said: "During her career in public service, Kelly distinguished herself with a willingness to work cooperatively to solve complex challenges. This judgment, combined with her leadership experience i a number of policy areas relevant to Blackstone's business, will add great value to the firm." Jon Gray, Blackstone President and COO, added: "Blackstone directors bring a unique perspective which improves the firm's decision making. Beyond Kelly's deep public policy experience, her reputation for independent thinking and integrity makes her a great asset to our board." Kelly Ayotte said: "Blackstone's ability to navigate the complex and changing world to remain a perpetual industry leader is a testament to the vision and strength of its people. I look forward to contributing to the firm's continued success, which benefits so many around the world." Ayotte currently serves of the boards of Caterpillar, News Corp (News - Alert), BAE Systems, Boston Properties, Blink Health and Bloom Energy. She also serves on the advisory boards of Microsoft, Chubb Insurance and Cirtronics, as well as a number of non-profit boards. She graduated with honors from Pennsylvania State University and earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Villanova University School of Law. About Blackstone Blackstone is one of the world's leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with $472 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter (News - Alert) @Blackstone. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005439/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Total Economic Impact Study Finds Numerify IT Business Analytics Delivers 214 Percent Return on Investment (ROI) SAN JOSE, Calif., April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Numerify, the leader in IT Business Analytics for the Global 2000, today released a commissioned Forrester Consulting study quantifying the Total Economic Impact and benefits of the Numerify System of Intelligence platform. Forrester found that enterprises that use Numerify IT Business Analytics solutions received an average 214% return on their investment over three years and recouped their entire investment in less than three months due to reduced incident volume, increased employee productivity, and reduced outsourced vendor spend. Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/83943241-numerify-forrester-total-economic-impact-tei-study/ Earlier research conducted by Numerify indicated that IT Business Analytics is rapidly becoming an investment priority for IT leaders, with 74% of survey respondents considering it critical. Yet, almost half the respondents relied on spreadsheets or other informal analytic techniques to provide them the insight to run their IT organization. This results in a lack of visibility across their IT processes, projects, and people, leading to increased costs, slower innovation, and increased risk. "We're delighted that this study has validated what our customers have been telling us all along: that we provide significant and measurable value more than $4 million over three years," said Gaurav Rewari, Co-Founder and CEO at Numerify. "Our prebuilt solutions embed Business Intelligence (BI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) models that enable enterprises to reduce costs and risk and increase agility and revenues." "This study also validated that our customers are able to deploy Numerify in under six weeks, compared to year-long projects for organizations that have attempted to develop such analytics on their wn. Delivering immediate value to our customers has been critical to our success," said Rewari. This independent study showed significant business benefits for organizations that have deployed the Numerify System of Intelligence platform, including: Reducing incidents by 30%, resulting in a cumulative three-year cost savings of over $2 million . By providing insights to the true root causes of incidents and by enabling prevention of recurring incidents, Numerify customers use resources more optimally while improving the service experience for internal users and customers. . By providing insights to the true root causes of incidents and by enabling prevention of recurring incidents, Numerify customers use resources more optimally while improving the service experience for internal users and customers. Automating the manual process of collecting and organizing data into analyses and reports, resulting in a cumulative three-year benefit of almost $1 million . IT staff were able to spend less time on mechanical and error-prone reporting, and instead focus on understanding the insights to drive better business outcomes. . IT staff were able to spend less time on mechanical and error-prone reporting, and instead focus on understanding the insights to drive better business outcomes. Increasing visibility into SLA compliance and ticket tracking for functions outsourced to external vendors, resulting in a cumulative three-year costs savings of $1.2 million . By proactively managing vendor performance, and by engaging in more informed contract renewal negotiations, Numerify customers were able to reduce costs while simultaneously improving service experience. According to an IT transformation leader at a Fortune 50 company quoted in the study, "The value we see with Numerify is in becoming a system of intelligence combining various systems of record to bring a holistic view across the IT landscape." To create this independent study, Forrester Consulting leveraged its Total Economic Impact (TEI) methodology and interviewed a representative sample of current Numerify customers. Forrester used the learnings from this research and customers' responses to formulate a composite organization. Forrester subsequently calculated the quantitative and qualitative benefits of using the Numerify System of Intelligence platform. Learn More: Download The Total Economic Impact Of Numerify IT Business Analytics study Register for The Business Case for IT Analytics webinar, featuring Forrester's Charles Betz and Line Larrivaud on April 30 at 11:00 am PT / 2:00 pm ET About Numerify Numerify is the leader in AI-powered business analytics for Global 2000 IT organizations. Trusted by leading brands, including 5 Fortune 50 and 12 Fortune 500 enterprises, its System of Intelligence helps IT organizations plan, build, and run the systems that power more than $500B of commerce and achieve measurable ROI by becoming more efficient and agile, while reducing risk and disruptions. Numerify is headquartered in San Jose, CA with offices in Chicago, IL, and Bangalore, India and is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Tenaya Capital, DAG Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and Four Rivers Group. Visit www.numerify.com and join the conversation on Twitter @numerify. Contact: Numerify Marketing [email protected] 408-822-961 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/total-economic-impact-study-finds-numerify-it-business-analytics-delivers-214-percent-return-on-investment-roi-300830665.html SOURCE Numerify [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] VANTIQ Connect Launches as the Solution Center for Real-Time Applications SAN FRANCISCO, April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today VANTIQ , the company that powers real-time business, launched VANTIQ Connect , a partner-driven solution center focused on supporting the exchange of sophisticated and modern real-time, event-driven applications. A new breed of software applications are being created every day that enable businesses to sense, analyze, and act on the events they care about in real time. By creating a new way for organizations to share these applications, VANTIQ is enabling companies to tap existing software and jump-start their digital transformation initiatives. VANTIQ Connect is not the usual software marketplace or application store. Instead, this solution center allows businesses to find applications built by systems integrators from around the world who specialize in creating, customizing, and deploying the next generation of applications. Through this service, organizations can get connected to experienced partners that can customize a solution to solve critical business challenges. The tremendous increase in the number of people creating real-time business applications is resulting in significant innovations using artificial intelligence, internet of things, and distributed processing, said Marty Sprinzen, CEO and co-founder of VANTIQ. Our goal with VANTIQ Connect is to enable our partners around the glbe to share their applications and expertise with other VANTIQ partners and end users, helping them to more quickly achieve desired outcomes and gain faster time-to-value in this emerging era of event-driven systems. With the initial launch, VANTIQ Connect contains numerous real-time solutions, including: Track & Trace for Supply Chain Management by Infosquare in Belgium an application to track and manage your supply chain in real-time with advanced sensors and an integrated operational platform. in Belgium an application to track and manage your supply chain in real-time with advanced sensors and an integrated operational platform. AI-enabled Monitoring of Factory Workers by Mitsuiwa in Japan a camera-based AI detection system to improve worker safety and food quality assurance in food manufacturing factories. in Japan a camera-based AI detection system to improve worker safety and food quality assurance in food manufacturing factories. Financial Services Chatbot by NX2 in Brazil an application to use modern chat platforms to manage loans and financial agreements in real-time. in Brazil an application to use modern chat platforms to manage loans and financial agreements in real-time. Smart Apartment by Winwin Software in China an apartment management application that uses connected sensors, infrared and Internet of Things devices to create smart home services for short term apartment rentals. When searching VANTIQ Connect, users will be able to view solutions across a range of categories including safety and security, field service, logistics/supply chain, environmental monitoring and response, application integration, customer service, smart city/infrastructure, smart manufacturing, internet of vehicles, and asset management. Additionally, searches can be done based on industry categories, countries or regions served by the partner, and language. VANTIQ is the foundation of most of the customized solutions we build and has been key to the success of our customers projects, said Vilavanh Messien, Managing Partner at Infosquare. VANTIQ Connect is a great opportunity for Infosquare to reach out to a large number of clients throughout the world and let them discover our latest real-time technology innovations and solutions. About VANTIQ VANTIQ the company that powers real-time business operations provides the only truly dynamic platform for quickly and easily creating transformative, digital applications to drive your agile business operations in real time. Founded in 2015 by renowned tech industry veterans Marty Sprinzen and Paul Butterworth, VANTIQ enables those involved in mission-critical business operations to benefit from a new breed of digital applications with dramatically reduced time-to-market, significantly lower development and maintenance costs, and maximum agility in response to constantly-changing operational requirements. For more information, visit www.vantiq.com Media contact: VANTIQ Dana Dye +1-415-928-1310 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Maana Presents at 2019 Decommissioning & Abandonment Summit Maana, the pioneer of digital knowledge technology, showcased WellLine, at the Decommissioning & Abandonment Summit, March 26-27, in Houston, Texas. Maana's WellLine application generates a digital knowledge layer of events from historical data in silos. It takes unstructured text, data from databases, and sensor events data and dynamically creates a digital knowledge layer of searchable timelines for wells. The WellLine knowledge layer is used t develop recommendation applications for decision making. During the event, Jeff Dalgliesh, Maana's Director of Oil Field Digital Transformation, participated in a Shark-Tank Technology Showcase highlighting the latest pioneering innovations to optimize P&A operations. The session, which featured executives from Shell, BP and ConocoPhillips, explored how new technologies can maximize decommissioning efficiencies, mitigate risk, and lead to higher quality abandonments. To demonstrate how the Maana Knowledge Platform organizes industrial data and human expertise into digital knowledge, Maana exhibited WellLine - an application that can be applied across disciplines, including drilling, completions, workovers, and plug and abandonments. Users find insights from well lifecycle events and present them on an intelligent well timeline. "We launched WellLine to serve as the Digital Knowledge Layer of wells on Microsoft (News - Alert) Azure," said Dalgliesh. "This technology enables our customers to mine text from tens of millions of historical drilling reports from thousands of wells, empowering operators to make faster decisions and better plan abandonments. We call this concept decision velocity." The two-day conference brought together the world's leading experts on decommissioning, P&A and well intervention and served as a platform for the industry's key decision makers. To learn more, wellline.com About Maana: Maana organizes the world's industrial data and human expertise into digital knowledge to enable millions of experts to make better decisions affecting the global economy and human civilization. Using our Knowledge Platform and its proprietary Computational Knowledge Graph, Fortune Global 500 industrial companies drive answers to operational questions that direct the future. Operating internationally, Maana is a privately-held company with offices in Menlo Park, California; Bellevue, Washington; Houston, Texas; London, UK; and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005207/en/ [April 11, 2019] Cancer Treatment Centers of America and Aetna Sign Agreement to Expand Care Access to Enrollees Nationwide Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) Atlanta has signed a three-year agreement with Aetna, making it a contracted provider. Effective April 1, 2019, many Aetna commercial members can now select CTCA Atlanta as an in-network facility for their cancer care. "Our new agreement with Aetna in Georgia reflects CTCA's dedication to provide greater patient access to our exceptional physicians, high quality services and value-based, patient-centered cancer care," says newly appointed CTCA President and CEO, Pat A. Basu, MD, MBA. "We thank Aetna for their partnership, and we look forward to growing this relationship nationwide." This agreement adds to contracts already in place with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia and Cigna and allows CTCA to expand its footprint of in-network care delivery to patients and families in need of expert cancer care. "Patients want and deserve choice and options in health care, and certainly when making decisions about cancer care," says Craig Schwamm, CTCA Vice President of Access. "The addition of Aetna as a contracted insurance provider will allow Aetna enrollees access to the clinical care and patient empowerment that are hallmarks of CTCA." About Cancer Treatment Centers of America Cancer Treatment Centers of America Global, Inc. (CTCA) is a comprehensive cancer care network of hospitals and outpatient care cnters in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Tulsa. Specializing in the treatment of adult cancer patients, CTCA offers an integrative approach to care that combines surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy with advancements in precision cancer treatment and supportive therapies designed to manage side effects and enhance quality of life both during and after treatment. CTCA also offers a range of clinical trials for cancer patients with the objective of revealing new treatments supported by scientific and investigational research. CTCA patient satisfaction scores consistently rank among the highest for all cancer care providers in the country. Visit cancercenter.com, Facebook.com/cancercenter and Twitter.com/cancercenter for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005530/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] CBTS Wins VMware 2018 Partner Innovation Award CBTS, a leading technology provider that delivers communications, cloud, infrastructure, and consulting solutions to clients across North America, today announced that it has received the Americas 2018 VMware Partner Innovation Award in the VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud Solution category. CBTS was recognized at VMware Partner Leadership Summit 2019, held in Carlsbad, CA (News - Alert). "We congratulate CBTS on winning a Partner Innovation Award as Partner of the Year in the VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud Solution category, and look forward to our continued collaboration and innovation," said Jenni Flinders, Vice President, Worldwide Channel Chief, VMware. "VMware and our partners will continue to empower organizations of all sizes with technologies that enable digital transformation." "CBTS is very pleased to receive this recognition from VMware, which validates our strong relationship and shared commitment to providing an outstanding customer experience to clients," said Joe Putnick, Vice President and Principal of the CBTS Communications Practice "We are excited to build on this momentum in 2019 and deliver continued success to organizations through custom designing a migration strategy to the cloud that will future-proof their network." Recipients of an Americas VMware Partner Innovation Award were acknowledged in 11 categories for their outstanding performance and distinctive achievements during 2018. About VMware Partner Leadership Summit 2019 VMware Partner Leadership Summit 2019 offered VMware partners the opportunity to engage with VMware executives and industry peers to explore business opportunities, customer use cases, solution practices, and partnering best practices. As an invitation-only event, it provided partners with resources to develop and execute comprehensive go-to-market plans. About CBTS CBTS serves enterprise and midmarket clients in all industries across the United States and Canada. From Unified Communications (News - Alert) to Cloud Services and beyond, CBTS combines deep technical expertise with a full suite of flexible technology solutions that drive business outcomes, improve operational efficiency, mitigate risk, and reduce costs for its clients. For more information, please visit www.cbts.com. VMware, VMware Cloud, VMware SD-WAN, and VeloCloud are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005538/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Fairview Microwave Expands Line of High-Speed End Launch Connectors to Operate in 40 GHz, 50 GHz, 67 GHz and 110 GHz Bandwidths IRVINE, Calif., April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Fairview Microwave Inc., an Infinite Electronics brand and a leading provider of RF and microwave components, has introduced a new extended series of mmWave, removable, end launch, PCB connectors that are ideal for SERDES applications like cloud servers, supercomputing and high-speed networking. Fairview's new line of high-speed, end launch, PCB connectors consists of 16 models operating in a wide bandwidth that supports high data rates and VSWR as low as 1.10:1. They are offered with four end launch connector interface options: 1.0mm (110 GHz), 1.85mm (67 GHz), 2.92mm (40 GHz) and 2.4mm (50 GHz). These high-performance, end launch connectors are reusable and don't require any soldering. Some of the models in this line feature reduced profiles with a 0.350-inch mounting width, allowing for more launches to fit into the same PCB area. These connectors are offered in male and female genders and are constructed with an outer conductor made of stainless steel and a gold-plated beryllium copper center contact. "With more models bosting exceptional performance and a broad range of frequencies, all available with same-day shipping, this expanded line of mmWave, removable, end launch, PCB connectors provides engineers and technicians with even more fast, reliable solutions," said Dan Birch, Product Manager. Fairview Microwave's new high-speed, end launch connectors are in stock and ready for immediate shipment with no minimum order quantity. For detailed information on these products, please visit https://www.fairviewmicrowave.com/rf-products/high-speed-end-launch-connectors.html?utm_source=Fairview&utm_medium=press-release&utm_campaign=high-speed-end-launch-connectors-2019 For inquiries, Fairview Microwave can be contacted at +1-972-649-6678. Press Contact: Peter McNeil Fairview Microwave 17792 Fitch Irvine, CA 92614 (978) 682-6936 About Fairview Microwave: A leading supplier of RF and microwave products since 1992, Fairview Microwave offers immediate delivery of RF components including attenuators, adapters, coaxial cable assemblies, connectors, terminations and much more. All products are shipped same-day from the company's ISO 9001:2008 certified production facilities in Lewisville, Texas. Fairview Microwave is an Infinite Electronics brand. About Infinite Electronics: Infinite Electronics is a leading global supplier of electronic components serving the urgent needs of engineers through a family of highly recognized and trusted brands. Our portfolio brands are specialists within their respective product set, offering broad inventories of engineering-grade product, paired with expert technical support and same-day shipping. Over 100,000 customers across a diverse set of markets rely upon Infinite Electronics to stock and reliably ship urgently needed products every day. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fairview-microwave-expands-line-of-high-speed-end-launch-connectors-to-operate-in-40-ghz-50-ghz-67-ghz-and-110-ghz-bandwidths-300825247.html SOURCE Fairview Microwave Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Alation Readies Company for Growth, Appoints First Chief Data Officer and Senior Vice President of Marketing REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alation Inc. , the data catalog company, today announced that Aaron Kalb, Alation co-founder, has been appointed as the companys first Chief Data Officer (CDO). As CDO, Kalb will lead a centralized team dedicated to Alations data governance, self-service analytics, security, and compliance initiatives as well as best practices on the proper use of data and data literacy initiatives. In addition, Stephanie McReynolds has been promoted to senior vice president of marketing. The first senior marketing hire at Alation, McReynolds has been instrumental in bringing Alations customer stories to market and helping the company become a recognized leader in the machine learning data catalog category. Through the evangelization of the Alation Data Catalog, McReynolds has been at the forefront of sharing best practices for enterprises wishing to build a customer data culture through leveraging a machine learning data catalog. Aaron and Stephanie have both been instrumental in championing the data catalog category and the core tenets of a customer data culture. As we further our mission of changing the way people work with data, its critical that we continue to evolve our own organization as a center of industry best-practices for data culture, said Satyen Sangani, CEO of Alation. Were looking forward to sharing Aaron and Stephanies hands-on experience with a broader audience, especially as developing data culture becomes critical to enterprises worldwide. The role of the CDO is growing in importance, with the position becoming both a fundamental function and an agent of change for data-driven transformation. According to Gartner, Its not difficult to see how, by 2021, the office of the CDO will be a mission-critical function comparable to IT, business operations, HR, and finance in 75% of large enterprises.* And yet, CDOs still face steep challenges when it comes to fostering data culture. Gartner also finds that, top CDOs reported internal roadblocks to success of their offices, indicative of a reactive response from organizations being pushed to change.** As CDO, Kalb will work with customers and internal users to test and publish best practices for using a data catalog to create a data cuture. One of Kalbs first initiatives will be embarking on a global tour to meet with prospects, partners, and customers. Through these conversations, he will be developing and sharing best practices for finding, understanding, trusting, using, and reusing data to drive business impact, as well as key learnings and success stories from other CDOs and analytics leaders. Internally, new Alation employees will be trained on how to integrate data into their day-to-day work. This training process, facilitated by Alations own rich data catalog and smart query tool, Compose, will help employees in a wide range of roles make data-informed decisions and build deeper empathy with Alations end-user population. Alations vision is to empower a curious and rational world. My mandate is simple: to promote curiosity, rationality, data-driven decision-making, and data culture within Alation and around the world, said Kalb. Im super excited to work with and learn from the incredible community of CDOs across our customer base, from Salesforce in San Francisco to Sainsburys in London, and advance our vision and values throughout many organizations. The promotion of Kalb and McReynolds follows on the heels of Alations impressive Q4 2018 customer growth , which reflects year-on-year, triple-digit revenue growth. Driven by the need to innovate with analytics, enterprises are turning to the Alation Data Catalog to support the creation of a customer data culture. Alations customers like GoDaddy, MunichRe, and Pfizer are seeing tangible outcomes by embracing a customer data culture . Only a few years ago, the market was just beginning to understand what a data catalog is and how it could help them connect analytics with decision making. Now, enterprises around the world and in nearly every major industry vertical are crediting the Alation Data Catalog with increasing analytic productivity, driving agile stewardship and expanding access to analytics beyond the analytic specialist, said Stephanie McReynolds. In conjunction with our customers, were learning that to reach the final mile of analytic value, applications, like data catalogs are critical. Learn more about the Alation Data Catalog Learn why Alation is the FUTURe of working with data of working with data Download Constellation Research s latest report on enterprise data catalogs for a hybrid data lake s latest report on enterprise data catalogs for a hybrid data lake Download GigaOm Research s latest report on data catalogs for enterprise data governance s latest report on data catalogs for enterprise data governance Read how customers are adopting machine learning data catalogs across a variety of industries *Gartner, 3 Top Take-Aways From the Gartner Chief Data Officer Survey, January 29, 2018 **Gartner, Success Patterns of CDOs Driving Business Impact, June 25, 2018 About Alation Alation, the data catalog company, is building a data-fluent world by changing the way people find, understand, trust, use, and reuse data. The first to bring a data catalog to market, Alation combines machine learning and human collaboration to bring confidence to data-driven decisions. More than 100 organizations, including the City of San Diego, eBay, Munich Re and Pfizer, leverage the Alation Data Catalog. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Alation is funded by Costanoa Ventures, DCVC (Data Collective), Harmony Partners, Icon Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Sapphire Ventures. For more information, visit alation.com . Media Contact Sheridan Smalley LEWIS for Alation [email protected] (415) 432-2447 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Synaptive Medical Announces Presence at 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Showcases Integrated Automated Tractography and Robotics Product Suite Synaptive Medical, a global pioneer in automated surgical planning and robotics, today announced they will be showcasing their fully integrated array of products and hosting surgical case study presentations at this year's 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) being held April 13-17, in San Diego, at the San Diego Convention Center. As part of this commitment to bringing innovation to the operating room, Synaptive will feature their integrated technology suite within the meeting Exhibit hall from Sunday, April 14, to Tuesday, April 16, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. PDT. Synaptive Medical's main showing is located at Booth 2033, and their Cadaveric Lab is located in the Surgical Suites (Booth 547). The neurosurgical equipment and imaging innovations to be presented at this year's meeting are as follows: BrightMatter TM Plan automatically generates dynamic, whole-brain tractography, so surgeons can easily review white matter tracts and explore surgical approaches during pre-operative planning stages. Additional updates to this product, will be featured, including white matter segmentation, which enables surgeons to see patient-specific tract bundles within seconds. Location(s) : Synaptive Booth (Booth 2033), Stryker Booth (Booth 933) , Stryker Mobile Lab (Booth 1144) automatically generates dynamic, whole-brain tractography, so surgeons can easily review white matter tracts and explore surgical approaches during pre-operative planning stages. Additional updates to this product, will be featured, including white matter segmentation, which enables surgeons to see patient-specific tract bundles within seconds. Modus V TM lends enhanced optics and a larger field of view using its fully automated robotic microscope, which ensures surgeons have a crystal-clear view of critical neuroanatomical structures at all times. Modus V will be demoed through a variety of simulated procedures in different settings, including a mock cranial and spine station and a clinical skills station. Location(s) : Synaptive Booth (Booth 2033) , Expo Suite (Booth 2454), Cadaveric Lab (Surgical Suites) lends enhanced optics and a larger field of view using its fully automated robotic microscope, which ensures surgeons have a crystal-clear view of critical neuroanatomical structures at all times. Modus V will be demoed through a variety of simulated procedures in different settings, including a mock cranial and spine station and a clinical skills station. Magnetic Resonance Imaging : In preparation for the launch of Evry, Synaptive's head-only MRI, intended to provide imaging directly at the point-of-care, they will showcase their latest images and user interface design to gain insights. Location : Synaptive Booth (Booth 2033) : In preparation for the launch of Evry, Synaptive's head-only MRI, intended to provide imaging directly at the point-of-care, they will showcase their latest images and user interface design to gain insights. Case Study Presentations: Case 1 (Monday, April 15, 9:00 a.m. PDT; Booth 2033) - "Clinical applications of tractography and a preview of a novel automatic segmentation algorithm", presented by Dr. Sebastian Koga from Ochsner Health System. Dr. Koga will demonstrate why tractography is important in planning and executing on the optimal approach. (Monday, April 15, 9:00 a.m. PDT; Booth 2033) - "Clinical applications of tractography and a preview of a novel automatic segmentation algorithm", presented by Dr. Sebastian Koga from Ochsner Health System. Dr. Koga will demonstrate why tractography is important in planning and executing on the optimal approach. Case 2 (Monday, April 15, 4:00 p.m. PDT; Booth 2033) - "Oncologic and Neurovascular case experience with Synaptive's Modus V and Integrated Tractography Platform," presented by Dr. Lawrence Dickinson from Sutter Health Eden Medical Center, will share his experiences using the Modus V in both cases and discuss compelling surgical data. Cadaveric Lab: Synaptive will run a cadaveric lab on Sunday, April 14 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. PDT in a surgical suite on the conference exhibit floor. The lab will run for a total of two hours, broken down into 30 minute segments, to allow for optimal hands-on experiences by attendees. The cadaver will be set up in a cranial skull-base approach to highlight the key benefits of Synaptive's robotic microscope, Modus V TM . The event will be held at the San Diego Convention Center Exhibit Hall in the Surgical Suites. For more information on the meeting and Synaptive's presence, visit the AANS Program Schedule. About Synaptive Medical Synaptive Medical Inc., a Toronto-based medical device and technology company, designs hardware and software technologies that cross traditional barriers in hospitals and improve patient care in and beyond the operating room. Synaptive's Modus V and integrated BrightMatter solutions-including surgical planning, navigation and visualization, and an informatics platform-give leading clinicians and healthcare systems the information they need to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005589/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Emerson and Colorado State University Collaborate on New Brewing Innovation Center Emerson (News - Alert) (NYSE: EMR) today announced a collaboration with Colorado State University (CSU) to build the Emerson Brewing Innovation Center, where students will get hands-on experience using the latest automation technologies. Funded by a joint investment, the center will serve as the main educational hub for the Fermentation Sciences and Technology program and will reinforce advanced competencies for digital transformation as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) era continues to evolve the industry. With the number of U.S. breweries increasing at a rate of 321 percent from 2007 to 2017, there is growing demand for highly skilled workers with expertise in fermentation sciences and proficiency in automation technologies. Emerson's advanced automation solutions enable brewing companies to optimize operations, detect and address quality issues in real time, reduce downtime and shorten changeovers that occur when one beverage is changed out for another in production. The CSU Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition attracts diverse, top-notch students to address the industry's growing technology demand. "Partnerships like these enable us to give our students experience with industry standards and help them prepare for the job market," said Jeff Callaway, associate director of Fermentation Science and Technology at CSU. "The new center will enhance our fermentation science academic program while strengthening ties to the industry." The Emerson Brewing Innovation Center will open this fall in the Gifford Building on CU's main Fort Collins campus and feature two brewing systems that will allow students to gain experience using the latest real-world technologies driving innovation in the industry. Emerson Impact Partner Lakeside will build the systems that feature elements of Emerson's Plantweb portfolio of IIoT technologies used in brewing automation: a DeltaV distributed control system, Micro Motion flow meters, Rosemount measurement technology and ASCO and Baumann valves. Emerson's collaboration with CSU is one of more than 350 secondary education partnerships worldwide that support finding solutions to address the skills gap in digital automation technologies. "We are focused on helping train the digital workforce of the future while advancing education, innovation and diversity in the industry," said Lal Karsanbhai, executive president of Emerson's Automation Solutions business. "The Emerson Brewing Innovation Center will mark the beginning of a strong and continued partnership with CSU." In addition to the center, Emerson is donating $10,000 toward a CSU diversity fellowship to help set up the brewing innovation center and a scholarship for the fermentation program. For more information on Emerson's solutions for brewing, go to Emerson.com/brewing. About Emerson Emerson (NYSE: EMR), headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is a global technology and engineering company providing innovative solutions for customers in industrial, commercial and residential markets. Our Emerson Automation Solutions business helps process, hybrid and discrete manufacturers maximize production, protect personnel and the environment while optimizing their energy and operating costs. Our Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions business helps ensure human comfort and health, protect food quality and safety, advance energy efficiency and create sustainable infrastructure. For more information visit Emerson.com. Additional resources: Join the Emerson Exchange 365 Community Connect with Emerson via Twitter Facebook LinkedIn YouTube View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005597/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Postmedia Reports Second Quarter Results Postmedia Network Canada Corp. ("Postmedia" or the "Company") today released financial information for the three and six months ended February 28, 2019. Also announced today, Andrew MacLeod, Postmedia's President and Chief Executive Officer has been appointed to the boards of both the Company and its subsidiary, Postmedia Network Inc. Highlights from the Quarter Continued digital growth - Ninth consecutive quarter of double digit digital advertising revenue - up 10.2% up 10.2% Slowing legacy decline - Print advertising revenue down 14.2% and print circulation revenue down 5.4% versus 18.8% and 7.9% respectively in Q2 F2018 and 7.9% respectively in Q2 F2018 Business Transformation initiatives implemented in the quarter are expected to result in approximately $6 million of net annualized cost savings - an 8.1% reduction in operating costs 1 Operating income before depreciation amortization and restructuring was $4.7 million in the quarter and excluding the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit ("Tax Credit") in Fiscal 2018 represents an increase of $0.6 million Debt repayment in the quarter was $20.4 million and subsequent to quarter end a further debt repayment of $5.5 million was made With these repayments, first-lien debt has been reduced by 56% by retiring $125.3 million of the original $225.0 million since October 2016 - bringing the total principal amount of first-lien notes outstanding to $99.7 million Second Quarter Operating Results Revenue for the quarter was $145.7 million as compared to $157.6 million in the same period in the prior year, a decrease of $11.9 million or 7.5%. The revenue decline was primarily due to decreases in print advertising revenue of $10.0 million or 14.2% and print circulation revenue of $2.9 million or 5.4%. Digital revenue increased by $1.8 million or 6.9% in the quarter with digital advertising revenue up 10.2%. "Our two pronged strategy - extend our legacy runway and grow digital revenues - is working," said Andrew MacLeod, President and Chief Executive Officer, Postmedia. "We continue to slow the declines in traditional revenues, deliver results on our business transformation initiatives and reduce our debt. Our success in extending the legacy runway is providing us the time to allow our digital transformation to continue demonstrating traction with its ninth consecutive quarter of double digit digital advertising growth". Excluding the impact of the Tax Credit in Fiscal 2018, total operating expenses excluding depreciation, amortization, impairment and restructuring decreased $12.4 million or 8.1% for the quarter, relative to the same period in the prior year. The decrease was as a result of lower newspaper circulation volumes as well as the implementation of various cost reduction initiatives. Excluding the impact of the Tax Credit in Fiscal 2018, operating income before depreciation, amortization, impairment and restructuring of $4.7 million in the quarter represents an increase of $0.6 million or 13.6% relative to the same period in the prior year. The increase is due to increased digital revenue and operating expense decreases, partially offset by decreases in print advertising and circulation revenues. Net loss in the quarter ended February 28, 2019 was $5.1 million, as compared to $1.3 million in the same period in the prior year. The change was primarily the result of an impairment charge in Q2 F2019 and the Tax Credit recovery in Q2 F2018 partially offset by a gain on disposal of property and equipment and assets held-for-sale in Q2 of Fiscal 2019. Year-to-Date Operating Results Revenue for the six months ended February 28, 2019 was $317.0 million as compared to $346.6 million in the same period in the prior year, a decrease of $29.6 million or 8.5%. The revenue decline was primarily due to decreases in print advertising revenue of $24.0 million or 14.9% and decreases in print circulation revenue of $7.5 million or 6.7%. Digital revenue increased by $3.3 million or 5.7% year to date with digital advertising revenue up 8.1%. Notably, adjusted for the impact of the publications acquired and sold in the Company's first quarter of Fiscal 2018, revenue for the six months ended February 28, 2019 decreased 6.3% relative to the same period in the prior year including decreases in print advertising revenue of 14.5%, print circulation revenue of 5.1% and an increase in digital revenue of 7.4% which includes an increase in digital advertising revenue of 10.1%. Excluding the impact of the Tax Credit in Fiscal 2018, total operating expenses excluding depreciation, amortization, impairment and restructuring decreased $28.0 million or 8.8% for the six months ended February 28, 2019, relative to the same period in the prior year. The decrease was as a result of lower newspaper circulation volumes as well as the implementation of various cost reduction initiatives. Excluding the impact of the Tax Credit in Fiscal 2018, operating income before depreciation, amortization, impairment and restructuring of $26.4 million in the six months ended February 28, 2019 represents a decrease of $1.6 million relative to the same period in the prior year. The decrease is due to decreases in print advertising and circulation revenues partially offset by an increase in digital revenue and operating expense decreases. Net loss in the six months ended February 28, 2019 was $6.5 million, as compared to net earnings of $4.5 million in the same period in the prior year. The change was primarily the result of an impairment charge in Fiscal 2019 as well as the Tax Credit recovery and a gain on disposal of operations in Fiscal 2018 partially offset by an increase in gain on disposal of property and equipment and assets held-for-sale. Business Transformation Initiatives During the three months ended February 28, 2019, the Company implemented initiatives - including compensation expense reductions, real estate rationalization, production efficiencies and other transformation programs - which are expected to result in approximately $6 million of net annualized cost savings. The Company intends to continue to identify and undertake ongoing cost reduction initiatives in an effort to address revenue declination in the legacy print business. Debt Repayment During the three months ended February 28, 2019, the Company sold the Ottawa Citizen facility and the net proceeds from the sale were included in a redemption of $20.4 million first-lien notes at par in accordance with the terms and conditions of the amended and restated first-lien notes indenture. Subsequent to quarter end, the Company made an additional redemption of $5.5 million first-lien notes bringing the total principal amount of first-lien notes outstanding to $99.7 million and the total repayments made, since October 2016, to $125.3 million. CAAT Pension Plan On January 29, 2019, Postmedia entered into an agreement with the Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology Pension Plan (the "CAAT Pension Plan") to merge Postmedia's defined benefit pension plans (the "Postmedia Plans"), with the CAAT Pension Plan effective July 1, 2019. The merger is subject to customary closing conditions including approval from both Postmedia Plan members and the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, or its successor (collectively, "FSCO"). Assuming all approvals are obtained, Postmedia will become a participating employer under the CAAT Pension Plan and all members of the Postmedia Plans, as well as members of the defined contribution pension plan will become members of the CAAT Pension Plan and will begin accruing benefits under the DBplus provisions of the CAAT Pension Plan beginning July 1, 2019. DBplus is a defined benefit pension plan with a fixed contribution rate for members, matched dollar for dollar by employers. The CAAT Pension Plan will assume defined benefit obligations accrued prior to July 1, 2019 contingent on the approval by FSCO of the transfer of assets from the Postmedia Plans. Additional Information Additional information, including financial statements and management's discussion and analysis can be found on the Company's website at www.postmedia.com/investors/financial-reports or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Note: All dollar amounts are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. About Postmedia Network Canada Corp. Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (TSX:PNC (News - Alert).A, PNC.B) is the holding company that owns Postmedia Network Inc., a Canadian newsmedia company representing more than 140 brands across multiple print, online, and mobile platforms. Award-winning journalists and innovative product development teams bring engaging content to millions of people every week whenever and wherever they want it. This exceptional content, reach and scope offers advertisers and marketers compelling solutions to effectively reach target audiences. For more information, visit www.postmedia.com. Forward-Looking Information This news release may include information that is "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. The Company has tried, where possible, to identify such information and statements by using words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "may," "will," "could," "would," "should" and similar expressions and derivations thereof in connection with any discussion of future events, trends or prospects or future operating or financial performance. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements with respect to the implementation and results of the Company's transformation initiatives, the realization of anticipated cost savings, the identification and undertaking of ongoing cost savings initiatives and the proposed pension plan merger. By their nature, forward-looking information and statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. These risks and uncertainties include, among others: competition from digital and other forms of media; the effect of economic conditions on advertising revenue; the ability of the Company to build out its digital media and online businesses; the failure to maintain current print and online newspaper readership and circulation levels; the realization of anticipated cost savings; possible damage to the reputation of the Company's brands or trademarks; possible labour disruptions; possible environmental liabilities, litigation and pension plan obligations; fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and the prices of newsprint and other commodities. For a complete list of our risk factors please refer to the section entitled "Risk Factors" contained in our annual management's discussion and analysis for the years ended August 31, 2018 and 2017. Although the Company bases such information and statements on assumptions believed to be reasonable when made, they are not guarantees of future performance and actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and developments in the industry in which the Company operates, may differ materially from any such information and statements in this press release. Given these risks and uncertainties, undue reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of such information or statements. Other than as required by law, the Company does not undertake, and specifically declines, any obligation to update such information or statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any such information or statements. Postmedia Network Canada Corp. Consolidated Statements of Operations (UNAUDITED) (In thousands of Canadian dollars, except per share amounts) For the three months ended February 28, For the six months ended February 28, 2019 2018 2019 2018 Revenues Print advertising 60,096 70,071 137,187 161,196 Print circulation 50,705 53,612 104,156 111,625 Digital 28,185 26,372 60,932 57,661 Other 6,713 7,522 14,697 16,085 Total revenues 145,699 157,577 316,972 346,567 Expenses Compensation 57,008 49,347 115,332 115,711 Newsprint 8,862 9,057 18,622 19,858 Distribution 29,432 31,924 60,875 67,385 Production 18,433 18,952 39,354 41,000 Other operating 27,292 27,184 56,411 57,589 Operating income before depreciation, amortization, impairment and restructuring 4,672 21,113 26,378 45,024 Depreciation 4,288 5,191 9,287 10,526 Amortization 3,329 4,278 7,521 7,667 Impairment 6,600 - 6,600 - Restructuring and other items 1,095 3,570 3,773 10,494 Operating income (loss) (10,640) 8,074 (803) 16,337 Interest expense 7,034 6,801 14,219 14,353 Gain on disposal of operations - - - (4,676) Net financing expense related to employee benefit plans 540 736 1,081 1,471 Gain on disposal of property and equipment and assets held-for-sale (11,671) - (11,445) (1,542) (Gain) loss on derivative financial instruments 869 2,565 1,426 (535) Foreign currency exchange (gains) losses (1,542) (776) 1,205 2,745 Earnings (loss) before income taxes (5,870) (1,252) (7,289) 4,521 Provision for income taxes - - - - Net earnings (loss) from continuing operations (5,870) (1,252) (7,289) 4,521 Net earnings from discontinued operations, net of tax of nil 791 - 791 - Net earnings (loss) attributable to equity holders of the Company (5,079) (1,252) (6,498) 4,521 Earnings (loss) per share from continuing operations Basic $ (0.06) $ (0.01) $ (0.08) $ 0.05 Diluted $ (0.06) $ (0.01) $ (0.08) $ 0.05 Earnings per share attributable from discontinued operations Basic $ 0.01 $ - $ 0.01 $ - Diluted $ 0.01 $ - $ 0.01 $ - Earnings (loss) per share attributable to equity holders of the Company Basic $ (0.05) $ (0.01) $ (0.07) $ 0.05 Diluted $ (0.05) $ (0.01) $ (0.07) $ 0.05 Postmedia Network Canada Corp. Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (UNAUDITED) (In thousands of Canadian dollars) As at February 28, 2019 As at August 31, 2018 (revised) Assets Current Assets Cash 18,471 26,037 Restricted cash 5,713 5,711 Accounts receivable 64,620 68,069 Assets held-for-sale 24,475 6,827 Inventory 6,173 6,219 Prepaid expenses and other assets 12,074 9,561 Total current assets 131,490 122,424 Non-Current Assets Property and equipment 113,085 154,465 Derivative financial instruments 1,053 2,479 Intangible assets 66,565 73,895 Total assets 312,193 353,263 Liabilities and Equity Current Liabilities Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 52,486 62,833 Provisions 12,194 18,666 Deferred revenue 27,673 28,994 Current portion of long-term debt 15,522 8,718 Total current liabilities 107,875 119,211 Non-Current Liabilities Long-term debt 238,334 264,022 Employee benefit obligations and other liabilities 77,105 62,703 Provisions 339 526 Total liabilities 423,653 446,462 Deficiency Capital stock 810,861 810,836 Contributed surplus 14,297 13,589 Deficit (936,618) (917,624) Total deficiency (111,460) (93,199) Total liabilities and deficiency 312,193 353,263 Postmedia Network Canada Corp. Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (UNAUDITED) (In thousands of Canadian dollars) For the three months ended February 28, For the six months ended February 28, 2019 2018 2019 2018 Cash Generated (Utilized) by: Operating Activities Net earnings (loss) attributable to equity holders of the Company (5,079) (1,252) (6,498) 4,521 Items not affecting cash: Depreciation 4,288 5,191 9,287 10,526 Amortization 3,329 4,278 7,521 7,667 Impairment 6,600 - 6,600 - Gain on disposal of operations - - - (4,676) (Gain) loss on derivative financial instruments 869 2,565 1,426 (535) Non-cash interest 4,580 3,655 9,120 7,477 Gain on disposal of property and equipment and assets held-for-sale (11,671) - (11,445) (1,542) Non-cash foreign currency exchange (gains) losses (1,525) (730) 1,236 2,806 Gain on sale of discontinued operations (791) - (791) - Share-based compensation plans 281 2,530 708 2,530 Net financing expense relating to employee benefit plans 540 736 1,081 1,471 Non-cash compensation expense of employee benefit plans 1,204 - 421 - Employee benefit plan funding in excess of compensation expense - (3,741) - (3,800) Net change in non-cash operating accounts 4,960 (11,388) (16,281) (27,059) Cash flows from (used in) operating activities 7,585 1,844 2,385 (614) Investing Activities Net proceeds from the sale of property and equipment and assets held-for-sale 20,344 - 20,735 9,829 Purchases of property and equipment (1,279) (134) (1,445) (283) Purchases of intangible assets (22) (190) (191) (429) Cash flows from (used in) investing activities 19,043 (324) 19,099 9,117 Financing activities Repayment of long-term debt (20,355) - (29,073) (79,442) Advances from (repayments of) senior secured asset-based revolving credit facility - (2,000) - 12,000 Restricted cash 391 (2) (2) 62,042 Share issuance costs 25 - 25 - Cash flow used in financing activities (19,939) (2,002) (29,050) (5,400) Net change in cash for the period 6,689 (482) (7,566) 3,103 Cash at beginning of period 11,782 14,433 26,037 10,848 Cash at end of period 18,471 13,951 18,471 13,951 Supplemental disclosure of operating cash flows Interest paid 380 87 5,890 8,903 Income taxes paid - - - - 1 Operating expenses excluding depreciation, amortization, impairment and restructuring as adjusted for the impact of a compensation expense recovery totaling $17.0 million related to the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit in the second quarter of Fiscal 2018. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005633/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Summit Health Management Partners with Arcadia.io for Enterprise-Wide Population Health Analytics Platform Summit Health Management (SHM), which offers a physician-led, professionally-managed model of management services for Summit Medical Group in New Jersey and physician practices across the US, and KLAS-rated Arcadia.io today announced that SHM will be working with Arcadia to drive value-based outcomes for health care provider groups. SHM entered into a multi-year contract with Arcadia to use its enterprise population health management platform and integrated tools for benchmarking, clinical outcome improvement, and financial performance. Arcadia Analytics will support SHM's independent physician-led multispecialty medical practices which include Summit Medical Group in New Jersey, Summit Medical Group Oregon and Summit Medical Group Arizona. With over 900 providers in New Jersey, Summit Medical Group, P.A. is one of the largest physician-owned multi-specialty groups in the country. "Summit Health Management manages the cost and quality of care for over 115,000 patients currently attributed in ACO contracts in New Jersey, and we've exceeded benchmarks in several value-based contracts," said Jamie Reedy, MD, MPH, Chief of Population Health. "Our mastery of developing effective clinical programs, meaningful analytics and comprehensive provider and patient engagement programs has been essential to our sustained successful ACO performance. To provide accountable care in an innovative, scalable fashion, we are accelerating our ability to take on better value-based contracts." SHM embarked on a multi-year search for a comprehensive solution that could scale to the needs of a growing physician group and ensure the quality, accuracy, and insights of its data analytics capabilities. "Over the course of our search, we saw Arcadia launch new products, and form deep partnerships with their customers to develop innovative solutions," said Dr. Reedy. "Arcadia has shown from the outset of our discussions that they were committed to us and our vision. The combined strengths of their people and platform made us feel very comfortable with Arcadia as our partner." The partnership with Arcadia will help SHM successfully execute on value-based care initiatives as it continues to expand across the country, enabling care teams to fundamentally transform patient management and care. Arcadia Analytics will provide near-real time reporting and analytics for SHM's administrators and actionable insights at the point of care for 1,000+ providers. "Pionering organizations like Summit Health Management are leaders in value-based care," said Arcadia CEO Sean Carroll. "With that, the technology that they select has to enable them to succeed as they take on increasing risk in a complex market. Extensive due diligence is more critical than ever. Our platform helps our innovative, high-performing partners reach their most ambitious goals, and we are thrilled to help make SHM's long-term vision a reality." KLAS: Arcadia Drives Strong Outcomes by Delivering Product That Works as Promoted1 Independent research and insights firm KLAS Research rated Arcadia in both Value Based Care Managed Services 2018, where it scored highest among all full-service value-based care managed services vendors2, and Population Health Management, 2018, where it was the strongest fully-rated population health management vendor for financial outcome success.3 KLAS conducted extensive interviews with Arcadia customers and found that "customer satisfaction starts during the sales process, when expectations are initially set."4 KLAS reported that Arcadia is, "noted for clearly setting expectations up front and being transparent about what [its] solutions can and (just as importantly) cannot do. This clarity enables the vendor to accurately deliver on their contract promises and to exceed expectations when it comes to integration."5 Arcadia has forged strong partnerships with leading value based care organizations across the country, driving strong clinical and financial outcomes. Several Arcadia customers were selected to speak in general education sessions in front of a global audience at the recent HIMSS19 conference. To learn more about how Arcadia helped these healthcare systems succeed under risk, please visit arcadia.io. The reports from KLAS Research can be found here: https://klasresearch.com/report/value-based-care-managed-services-2018/1301 https://klasresearch.com/report/population-health-management-2018-part-2/1313 About Summit Health Management Founded in 2014, Summit Health Management (SHM) offers a physician-led, professionally-managed model of management services for Summit Medical Group in New Jersey and mid- to large-sized physician practices across the United States. Developed by physicians for physicians, SHM provides an innovative alternative to traditional options for the integration of multi-specialty group practice and the delivery of value-based care. SHM's practice management services are focused in five discrete but interrelated categories essential to running a successful, enterprise-scale medical group: organizational structure and governance, operations management, revenue management, physician management, and population health management. For more information, visit www.summithealthmanagement.com. About Arcadia Arcadia.io (www.arcadia.io) is a population health management company, specializing in data aggregation, analytics, and workflow software for value-based care. Our customers achieve financial success in their risk-sharing contracts through Arcadia's focus on creating the highest quality data asset, pushing expertly derived insights to the point of care, and supporting administrative staff with data when and where they need it with applications including care management and referral management. Arcadia has off-the-shelf integration technology for more than 40 different physical and behavioral health EHR vendors, powered by machine learning that combs through variations in over 50 million longitudinal patient records across clinical, claims and operational data sources. Arcadia software and outsourced ACO services are trusted by some of the largest risk bearing health systems and health plans in the country to improve the bottom line. Founded in 2002, Arcadia has offices near Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Seattle. Arcadia was awarded 2019 Best in KLAS for Value Based Care Managed Services. 1 Population Health Management, 2018, Part 2, Page 5. 2 Value Based Care Managed Services 2018, Page 5. 3 Population Health Management 2018, Part 2, Page 4. 4 Population Health Management 2018 Part 2, Page 5. 5 Population Health Management 2018 Part 2, Page 5. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005644/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] SAIC Earns Perfect Score on 2019 Corporate Equality Index Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC (News - Alert)) announced today that it received a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2019 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation's premier benchmarking tool on corporate policies and practices impacting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees. With this score, SAIC has earned the distinction of "Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality." "We are proud to have been selected by the Human Rights Campaign to receive this prestigious honor. SAIC is fully committed to workplace equality and we thrive on being inclusive. By creating an atmosphere where we understand our similarities and differences, our employees can be their authentic selves, which ultimately contributes to our high-performing company," said SAIC CEO-elect Nazzic Keene. "Our CEI score is a reflection of our values and commitment to an inclusive environment where all employees are respected and appreciated." The 2019 CEI evaluates LGBTQ-related policies and practices including non-discrimination workplace protections, domestic partner benefits, transgender-inclusive health care benefits, competency programs, and public engagement with the LGBTQ community. SAIC joins 571 major businesses spanning nearly every industry and geography to achieve CEI's highest distinction. "SAIC has made an active effort to provide a competitive and inclusive benefits package for all of our employees. Ultimately, these efforts resulted in satisfying all of the CEI's criteria leading to our 100 percent ranking and the designation as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality," SAIC Chief Human Resources Officer Karen Wheeler. For more information on the 2019 Corporate Equality Index, or to download a free copy of the report, visit www.hrc.org/cei. To learn more about SAIC's commitment to diversity and inclusion, visit https://www.saic.com/careers/life-at-saic. About SAIC SAIC is a premier technology integrator solving our nation's most complex modernization and readiness challenges across the defense, space, federal civilian, and intelligence markets. Our robust portfolio of offerings includes high-end solutions in systems engineering and integration; enterprise IT, including cloud services; cyber; software; advanced analytics and simulation; and training. With an intimate understanding of our customers' challenges and deep expertise in existing and emerging technologies, we integrate the best components from our own portfolio and our partner ecosystem to rapidly deliver innovative, effective, and efficient solutions. We are a team of 23,000 strong driven by mission, united purpose, and inspired by opportunity. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has annual revenues of approximately $6.5 billion. For more information, visit saic.com. For ongoing news, please visit our newsroom. Certain statements in this announcement constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties and a number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in SAIC's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other such filings that SAIC makes with the SEC (News - Alert) from time to time, which may be viewed or obtained through the Investor Relations section of our web site at www.saic.com. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005459/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Simpson Thacher Names Stephen M. Cutler as Head of its Government and Internal Investigations Practice Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP announced today that Stephen M. Cutler has been appointed as Head of the Firm's Government and Internal Investigations Practice. Steve, who joined the Firm as a Partner in 2018, advises companies, boards and senior executives on government and internal investigations, corporate governance and regulatory matters. He was formerly General Counsel of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and also served as Vice Chairman. Previously, Steve served as Director of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he led the agency's investigations of numerous high-profile financial reporting, broker-dealer and investment advisor matters. "Steve is an excellent choice to lead our Investigations Practice," said Bill Dougherty, Chairman of Simpson Thacher's Executive Committee. "He is highly respected for his leadership skills and widely recognized as one of the leading lawyers of his generation. His experience in both the public and private sectors is unmatched." Jonathan Youngwood, Co-Head of the Firm's Litigation Department, said, "Steve's experience is unique. He helped lead one of the country's preeminent institutions through the financil crisis and also served as the SEC's (News - Alert) Director of Enforcement during a period of some of the agency's most historic cases, including WorldCom and Enron. He is an asset to our Firm and will make a great leader to a strong bench of talent." "Since joining Simpson Thacher last year, I've been so impressed with the many outstanding lawyers in the Firm's Government and Internal Investigations Practice," said Steve. "Day in and day out, they bring a wealth of experience, judgment and wisdom to their work on behalf of the Firm's clients. I am lucky to count myself as one of their colleagues." Steve earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University. Simpson Thacher's Global Litigation Department represents a wide range of sophisticated clients, including financial institutions, corporations, boards, audit and special committees, and senior executives, in their most significant matters. The Firm offers a substantial bench of talent to effectively handle litigations, government and internal investigations, arbitrations and cross-border disputes in North and South America, Asia and Europe. ABOUT SIMPSON THACHER & BARTLETT LLP Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP (www.simpsonthacher.com) is one of the world's leading international law firms. The Firm was established in 1884 and has more than 900 lawyers. Headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Palo Alto (News - Alert), Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., the Firm provides coordinated legal advice and transactional capability to clients around the globe. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005642/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] SAKURA Internet Adopts White Box Switch Solution, Featuring IP Infusion's OcNOS Network Operating System, in their Data Center Service IP Infusion, a leading provider of intelligent network software for telecom and data communications services, announced that SAKURA Internet, a Japan-based Internet infrastructure service provider selected IP Infusion's (News - Alert) OcNOS network operating system and Edgecore Networks open network switches in their data center to enable delivery of advanced services. Through APRESIA Systems, Ltd., an IP Infusion's reseller partner in Japan, SAKURA selected disaggregated networking solution based on the OcNOS network operating system and Edgecore Networks (News - Alert) AS4610-54T 1GbE and AS5812-54X 10GbE Top-of-Rack (ToR) switches. OcNOS is the industry's first full-featured modular extensible network OS for white box open networking solutions offering advanced capabilities such as extensive switching and routing protocol support ranging from Layer 2, Layer 3 to MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching), and APIs/protocols for SDN (software defined networking). OcNOS features hybrid, centralized or distributed network support; scalable, modular high-performance network; and a robust data plane built on merchant silicon. "We selected IP Infusion's OcNOS network operating system for the infrastructure of our data center services because of its track record in providing extensive technology capabilities to its global customer base," said Masayuki Inoue, Middleware Group Manager of Technology Division, SAKURA Internet. "By adopting the disaggregated solution based on IP Infusion and Edgecore Networks, we will be able to meet the demands for building flexible cloud network infrastructure." "SAKURA is the first adoption of the white box solution with OcNOS on a large scale in the Japan maret and will serve as an excellent use case model to apply for data center services in Japan," said Atsushi Ogata, CEO and president of IP Infusion. "SAKURA will continue to be an important customer as we expand the NOS functions and the line of support hardware for future SAKURA Internet data center service and other customers." "Edgecore Networks continues to provide open networking solutions for a wide range of use cases for data center, service provider and enterprise network operators. We are pleased to be working with IP Infusion to meet SAKURA Internet strict requirements for data center services," said George Tchaparian, CEO, Edgecore Networks. "The combination of the robust OcNOS software features and Edgecore high-performance switches brings significant business and technology benefits to SAKURA with a new open networking infrastructure." About SAKURA Internet, Inc. SAKURA Internet Inc. has been engaged in data center operations since the dawn of Japan's Internet era. Bandwidth (News - Alert) plays an important role in communications environments, and SAKURA Internet, as one of Japan's largest domestic operators, has a combined bandwidth of 1.14 Tbps (as of March 2019). In addition to Internet infrastructure services offering excellent cost performance, such as "Sakura Rental Server," "Sakura VPS," "Sakura Cloud," and "Sakura Dedicated Server," it also provides services meeting the needs of a wide range of customers, from individuals to corporations and enterprises, such as the "Koukaryoku Computing," which uses optimal GPUs for AI and deep learning development. Headquarters: 4-20 Ofukacho, Kita-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture Founded: December 23, 1996 Employees: 471 Capital: 2,256,920,000 yen Net sales: 17,033,370,000 yen (for the year ended March 31, 2018) URL: https://www.sakura.ad.jp/ About Edgecore Networks Edgecore Networks Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Accton Technology Corporation, the leading network ODM. Edgecore Networks delivers wired and wireless networking products and solutions through channel partners and system integrators worldwide for the Data Center, Service Provider, Enterprise and SMB customers. Edgecore Networks is the leader in open networking providing a full line of open WiFi (News - Alert) access points, packet transponders, virtual PON OLTs, and 1G, 10G, 25G, 40G, 100G and 400G OCP AcceptedTM switches that offer choice of commercial and open source NOS and SDN software. For more information, visit www.edge-core.com. About IP Infusion IP Infusion, the leader in disaggregated networking solutions, delivers enterprise and carrier-grade software solutions allowing network operators to reduce network costs, increase flexibility, and to deploy new features and services quickly. IP Infusion's OcNOS, the industry's first enterprise and carrier-grade network operating system for Open Compute hardware, allows for easier implementation of large-scale IT networks, and offers customers white box solutions to deploy more quickly. VirNOS, an NFV-based software platform, provides carriers and enterprises with a cost-effective network OS approach to implement and manage their networking services. With the OcNOS and VirNOS network operating systems, both powered by ZebOS, IP Infusion offers network operators, carriers, and enterprises with the physical and virtual software solutions they need to achieve the disaggregated networking model. Over 300 customers worldwide, including major networking equipment manufacturers, use IP Infusion's respected ZebOS platform to build networks to address the evolving needs of cloud, carrier and mobile networking. IP Infusion is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and is a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of ACCESS CO., LTD. Additional information can be found at http://www.ipinfusion.com IP Infusion, ZebOS, VirNOS and OcNOS are trademarks or registered trademarks of IP Infusion. ACCESS is registered trademarks or trademarks of ACCESS CO., LTD. in the United States, Japan and/or other countries. Northforge Innovations is a registered trademark of Northforge Innovations, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005033/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Announces Investigation on Behalf of Nokia Corporation Investors (NOK) Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces an investigation on behalf of Nokia (News - Alert) Corporation ("Nokia" or the "Company") (NYSE: NOK) investors concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of federal securities laws. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. If you wish to learn more about this action, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, Esquire, at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-73-9224, or by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. On March 21, 2019, the Company disclosed that it had been, "made aware of certain practices relating to compliance issues at the former Alcatel Lucent business [acquired by Nokia November 2016] that have raised concerns.'' Nokia then advised investors that it had initiated an internal investigation and that it was cooperating with regulatory authorities to resolve the matter. On this news, shares of Nokia fell $0.38 per share, or over 6%, to close at $5.88 on March 22, 2019, thereby injuring investors. If you purchased Nokia securities, have information, or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005668/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Simon-Kucher & Partners Commentary: The Secret behind Apple's New Strategy Apple's long-awaited entry into subscription video has drawn a sharply critical response. It's true that the timing is odd: Rumors are swirling that another giant, YouTube, is about to exit the very same space Apple is poised to enter. It's also true that the lineup of celebrities onstage at the Steve Jobs Auditorium - Steven Spielberg! Jennifer Aniston! Oprah! Big Bird! -- seem designed to impress your dad rather than the Brooklyn twenty-somethings caught spontaneously dancing in company advertisements. Furthermore, estimates of Apple's investment in original programming pegs it below 15% of the amount Netflix has budgeted for the same period, leading pundits to conclude that Tim Cook is in over his head, leaping without looking, or simply desperate for a solution to faltering iPhone (News - Alert) sales (more on that later). To be sure, Apple has released some total disasters in the past - I am wearing one on my wrist - but let's not count out the plucky company from Cupertino quite yet. As advisors to some of the world's biggest brands on questions of revenue strategy and pricing, we at Simon Kucher & Partners often get to see industry trends before they are evident to the rest of the world. In Apple's announcement, we hear the echo of something larger, a tectonic shift which is quietly defining the future of one of the largest industries in the world. An index created by tech platform Zuora (News - Alert) shows that subscription businesses have grown 300% in the past seven years, far outpacing S&P 500 growth over the same time period. "Once customers can get the outcome they want, without having to worry about owning the physical assets," notes CEO Tien Tzuo, "that's where the demand goes, and that's where new revenue streams are created." For Apple, the "physical asset" in question is that money-making machine without equal: The iPhone. Yes, you love your iPhone today, but will you still love it tomorrow? Sales, measured either as new users or upgrades, have flagged, and unit sales of iPads and MacBooks have actually slipped from 2017 to 2018. Billboards unfavorably comparing the iPhone with the Samsung (News - Alert) Galaxy or the Google Pixel can be seen on any major urban thoroughfare - such as the US 101 between San Francisco and Cupertino. It has been a long time since a new iPhone really astonished the world, aside from its price tag (News - Alert). The iPhone pricing problem can be described as a local maxima trap. Apple could introduce distinctive new features, but that would require higher prices, costing them customers. Alternatively, Apple could lower the price, but that might restrict their ability to introduce thosesame distinctive new features, which might also lose customers. What's a massive multi-national corporation to do? With their wildly ambitious new plan, Tim Cook & Co completely short-circuits this conversation. To extend the metaphor above, they are done with dating and would like to finally settle into a more permanent, till-death-do-us-part-style arrangement with consumers. Above all, they understand that seeking the hand of an increasingly fickle and commitment-averse population is an all-or-nothing proposition. That helps to explain why Apple is trying hard to prove itself every bit as attractive as rival suitors like Amazon Prime, one cloud-accessible feature at a time. It also provides a logical basis for Apple's willingness to cannibalize its music download revenues, which accounted for more than $1BN just a few years ago, with unlimited Apple Music. They are even willing to permit a bit of device infidelity: Despite the name, Apple TV Plus does not require an Apple TV, and can be accessed using competing televisions from Samsung, Sony, Vizio, or LG. All Apple asks in return is that you give them total ownership over your digital world. The mantra is: The more Apple you get, the better off you are - safer, happier, more fulfilled. If you can view it on a screen, load it via the cloud, hear it over AirPods - Apple wants you to access it, stream it, and most importantly pay for it through their ecosystem. The "paying for it" part may be the most important of all. The newly-announced Apple Credit Card could be the dynamo that drives this new flywheel, integrated as it is with all everything else Apple does or plans to do. Its cash reward structure offers 3% back on Apple products, and 2% back on anything bought with Apple Pay, with no annual charge or other fees. While the rest of the world is carping that these rewards are hardly better than many cards already on the market, watch this video (or better, show it to anyone under 30). and you'll quickly see that arguing in support of, say, the Chase Slate Card is like coming out in favor of the Zune. It's a nearly frictionless decision for Apple. Simply avoiding merchant fees will allow them to finance the bulk of their cash-back program, and that's before they see the first dollar of revolving balance interest. More importantly, it's frictionless for the consumer. A recent study by a team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that mobile payments increased the quantity of retail transactions by 23%; meanwhile, an earlier study by MIT (News - Alert) professor Amy Finkelstein found that integrated payment systems (think FastTrack or EZ-Pass) permitted a 20% - 40% price increase. For a company in a local maxima trap, this sounds like a get-out-of-jail-free card. Meanwhile, the steady drip, drip, drip created by constant cash-back notifications on every single purchase (below) sends the perfect dopamine-fueled reminder that this marriage is truly made in financial heaven. Students of Apple's stock will note that this is hardly a secret, since it is writ large on the company's public financial statements. Services have crept up from $24BN in 2016 to more than $37BN in 2018 - topped off with a spectacular $10BN in the final quarter of that year. With all these moving parts, it's important not to miss the big picture. This is not about a piecemeal investment in video, publications, streaming music, gaming, cloud storage, or payments. It is about bringing them all together to create a fundamentally new relationship with the customer, one that may entirely up level the company's trajectory. About the Author Eddie Hartman is a Partner at Simon Kucher's San Francisco office. He specializes in developing high-growth revenue strategies, conducting effective go-to-market planning, and achieving recurring revenue excellence. Simon-Kucher & Partners, strategy & marketing consultants: Our focus is on TopLine Power. Founded in 1985, Simon-Kucher & Partners has more than 30 years of experience providing strategy and marketing consulting and is regarded as the world's leading pricing advisor. The firm has over 1,300 employees in 38 offices worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005765/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Deadline Reminder: The Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Reminds Investors of Looming Deadline in the Class Action Lawsuit Against First Choice Healthcare Solutions, Inc. Law Offices of Howard G. Smith reminds investors of the upcoming May 28, 2019 deadline to file a lead plaintiff motion in the class action filed on behalf of investors who purchased First Choice Healthcare Solutions, Inc. ("First Choice" or the "Company") (OTC: FCHS) securities between April 1, 2014 and November 14, 2018, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Investors suffering losses on their First Choice investments are encouraged to contact the Law Offices of Howard G. Smith to discuss their legal rights in this class action at 888-638-4847 or by email to [email protected]. On November 14, 2018, both a criminal indictment and civil action were filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission respectively against then-Chief Executive Officer, President, and Board Chairman Christian Romandetti, Sr., along with other alleged co-conspirators. Romandetti was charged regarding his connections with the arrangement of a multi-million dollar pump-and-dump scheme in which the price and volume of First Choice shares was falsely controlled through artificial generation of trading volume and price mvements, as well as materially false representations and omissions in communications with investors. On this news, shares of First Choice fell $0.66 per share, or over 65%, to close at $0.35 on November 15, 2018, thereby injuring investors. The complaint filed in this class action 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: (1) defendants retained Elite Stock Research, Inc. to falsely promote the Company to materially inflate the price of First Choice stock; (2) the Company's CEO participated and personally profited from a scheme to materially inflate the price of First Choice securities through an unlawful, paid promotional campaign; (3) defendants were in violation of First Choice's internal compliance policies by participating in the pump and dump scheme; and (4) a primary cause of fluctuations in First Choice's stock price was the unlawful campaign, in which Romandetti directly participated, that caused the price of First Choice stock to be inflated while at the same time allowed others to dump their First Choice stock for profit. If you purchased shares of First Choice during the Class Period you may move the Court no later than May 28, 2019 to ask the Court to appoint you as lead plaintiff if you meet certain legal requirements. To be a member of the class action you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action. If you wish to learn more about this class action, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005769/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Lake Mahopac, NY Home Makes Call-For-Offers on SparkOffer, New Web and Mobile-Accessible PropTech Service That Accelerates Home Sales via Real-Time Capabilities Homeowner Michael Levine of 464 North Lake Boulevard in Mahopac, New York is making a "Call for Offers" via SparkOffer, a new PropTech service designed for the "speed age" that allows users to submit and accept real-time offers on for-sale homes via web and mobile devices. The homeowner is using the combination of SparkOffer's multiple-offer capabilities in combination with a 38-percent reduction from the property's original price of $3.25 million. This demonstrates his commitment to selling in the spring market, as there are currently an estimated 1,600 homes in New York State with an asking price over $1 million that have been on the market for more than a year. SparkOffer increases the buyer pool for sellers as buyers can still elect typical offer terms like home inspections and mortgage contingencies, options that are not available through the auction route. Additionally, SparkOffer features like the new Watch feature alert buyers via text and email messages when other offers are placed on properties they're interested in, keeping them up-to-date on property movement. "SparkOffer is the digital version of the traditional transaction marketplace, where sellers can post for-sale homes and buyers can submit real offers, designed as a new solution for homes in areas that need a market boost as an alternative to the auction process, such as the case with Mr. Levine at 464 North Lake Boulevard," said Mike Russo, founder and developer of SparkOffer. "It's a fully transparent process that makes buying and selling a home exciting, easy and financally beneficial for both parties." 464 North Lake Boulevard, listed locally with Richard Castro of Weichert Realtors, is a newly-renovated, dramatic home that features unobstructed views of Lake Mahopac. The first-floor provides a chef's kitchen, an expansive butler's pantry and a formal dining room. The home's first-floor master suite has a generous walk-in closet and French doors leading to a private balcony with lake-views, and an inviting master bathroom offers a soaking tub, a marble-tiled shower and a sauna. A two-story living room is bathed in natural light from large windows, and French doors open to an additional balcony that flows down to the sprawling 1.66-acre yard, featuring a custom chipping range and a boat house with a spacious deck overlooking Lake Mahopac. The stunning home, located one-hour from New York City, is available for purchase through SparkOffer, which allows users to interact and manage home sales and purchases via a web-based dashboard and internal messaging system. "SparkOffer is making it possible for interested buyers to place an offer on 464 North Lake Boulevard at their own convenience, eliminating the back-and-forth from the traditional process and appealing to digital-age expectations," said Mr. Levine. While other PropTech entities focus on allowing buyers to simply view online listings, SparkOffer users can interact and make offers with or without the assistance of a buyer's agent. Buyers can quickly walk through a simple offer process, use a credit card for the initial deposit and sign offer agreements from any device, while sellers receive immediate text and email notifications of their offers and can provide real-time feedback to interested buyers. SparkOffer was developed and founded by Mike Russo, who utilized comprehensive experience in global luxury real estate and auctions, as well as software development to bring the service to life. Mike created SparkOffer with the goal to provide agents and self-represented users a simplified tool to modernize and increase productivity in the home-selling process. For more information on SparkOffer, visit http://sparkoffer.com/ or call 844-676-7651. About Mike Russo With an extensive background in global luxury residential real estate, Mike Russo is an accomplished real estate veteran with two decades of industry experience, with quantifiable success closing record-setting transactions on an international scale. Most recently, Russo served as director of business development and COO of Concierge Auctions, a global real estate marketplace specializing in the auction sale of luxury homes, where he personally handled over 350 property sales across 20 states and in 15 countries. During his tenure, Russo spearheaded numerous sales and technology initiatives that helped Concierge grow to more than $1 billion in historical sales in just seven years. Prior to Concierge Auctions, Russo served as the Vice President of Realogy/Cendant, one of the largest real estate franchisors. In 2009, Russo created and founded Rezora, a digital marketing platform targeted towards the real estate industry. Under Russo's guidance, both Concierge Auctions and Rezora were included on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list, and now he has his sights are set on Particip8 Realty reaching that list quickly. Through a culmination of his industry experience and entrepreneurial-savvy, Russo offers Particip8 Realty and SparkOffer, both designed to save users thousands in unnecessary fees while empowering local brokers to reach target sales goals. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005792/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] The Stefanski Center for Community Health Education Opens at Cleveland Clinic The Stefanski Center for Community Health Education opened earlier this week as a part of the new Samson Pavilion at the Cleveland Clinic. The Center, funded by the Third Federal Foundation, in partnership with the Stefanski Family Foundation, is supported by a $5 million donation and is focused on addressing health disparities and delivering quality healthcare and outreach to Cleveland neighborhoods. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005570/en/ Marc A. Stefanski, Chairman and CEO of Third Federal (Photo: Business Wire) "The Stefanski family is proud to make this important investment to help care for Cleveland residents who need it the most," said Marc A. Stefanski. "My family and I want to make sure those in fnancial need here in Cleveland have open access to world-class care." A study several years ago by Cuyahoga County found that residents in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland had a life expectancy of 64 years. In the suburb of Lyndhurst, just several miles away, life expectancy was 88.5 years. The donation is the largest ever from the Third Federal Foundation, and supports Stefanski's continued efforts to provide quality healthcare to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio residents in need. Stefanski's wife Rhonda passed away from pancreatic cancer in November 2014. Rhonda's Kiss fundraisers, named for Stefanski's late wife, have raised more than $750,000 to help Northeast Ohio residents with cancer who need non-medical support during the cancer treatment process. About the Third Federal Foundation The Third Federal Foundation (The Foundation) was established by Third Federal Savings & Loan Association in 2007 to help the communities Third Federal serves. The Foundation has donated more than $10 million during that time to fund programs and community organizations, including those to assist the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and its mission to educate the children of Cleveland. Third Federal is a leading provider of savings and mortgage products, and operates under the values of love, trust, respect, a commitment to excellence and fun. Founded in Cleveland in 1938 as a mutual association by Ben and Gerome Stefanski, Third Federal's mission is to help people achieve the dream of home ownership and financial security. It became part of a public company in 2007 and celebrated its 80th anniversary in May, 2018. Third Federal, which lends in 25 states and the District of Columbia, is dedicated to serving consumers with competitive rates and outstanding service. Third Federal, an equal housing lender, has 21 full service branches in Northeast Ohio, eight lending offices in Central and Southern Ohio, and 17 full service branches throughout Florida. As of December 31, 2018, the Company's assets totaled $14.2 billion. For more, visit thirdfederal.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005570/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Child modeling has become a lucrative industry worldwide. [Photo: Pixabay] A video of a three-year-old girl being kicked by her own mother during a photo shoot went viral on Thursday, indicating China's underperformance in regulating the emerging child modeling industry. The girl, known as Niu Niu, was physically abused by her mother in several videos, either being kicked or beaten with clothes-hangers. According to media reports, the girl was punished because her mother was not happy with her performance during a commercial shoot. The appalling videos have infuriated Chinese media outlets and internet users alike. The hashtag NiuNiuBeatenByHerMother has garnered over 200 million views on Sina Weibo in just 12 hours, with many netizens and scholars calling for local authorities to carry out further investigations into possible child abuse. In response to the public outcry, Niu Nius mother issued an apology via Sina Weibo on Thursday, denouncing accusations of abuse. She noted that she was merely guiding her daughter for better shots and the girl is well looked after. Despite her apology, many E-shops which used Niu Nius images for brand promotion have canceled their cooperation with the mother, while over 110 renown child garment shops on Taobao, Chinas largest e-commerce platform, have signed up for a campaign to provide better protection for child models. Fang Zhiqing, a Beijing-based lawyer and child protection expert, told Peoples Daily Online that China's anti domestic violence law may punish the mother, but as an emerging industry, child modeling still remains a blind spot of Chinese law. It is necessary to adopt comprehensive laws and regulations to further protect the kids, preventing their parents and companies from exploiting them, Fang Zhiqing, a Beijing-based child protection expert and lawyer, told Peoples Daily Online. Booming child modeling industry Photo: Pixabay Niu Niu is not alone. In Zhili, a small town in Zhejiang province, thousands of children from across China are taken here by their parents to seize the chance of fame. With a population of 450,000, Zhili has over 13,000 manufacturers of child clothing. In 2017, the town earned over 7 billion yuan by selling clothing for children online, thus providing opportunities for child models. Shen Rongfeng, a supervisor at Huzhou Mingbang Clothes Company, told Zhejiang Daily that due to the expansion of e-commerce in Zhili, the demand for child models had snowballed. It is a lucrative yet competitive industry. We receive dozens of applications per day, but very few candidates make their way into the modeling industry. Many parents have spent handsomely on training, even teaching their children classics and music to increase their chances, Lu Lu, a child clothing sales assistant told Peoples Daily Online. According to the South China Morning Post, child models in Zhili earn 80 to 150 yuan ($12-$22) for a shot involving one outfit, or up to about 10,000 yuan ($ 1,500) a day for modelling more than 100 outfits, while the most popular models can allegedly earn 1 million yuan a year. Modeling can be a tedious job for kids. For a commercial shoot, it may take hours of repeating the same pose, while the professional training is exhausting. Many kids cry while attending training, said Lu Lu. But not all parents are driven by potential earnings. Some believe that being a model can help their children become more outgoing and confident. A mother surnamed Wang told Zhejiang Daily that she forced her nine-year-old daughter to try modeling because she thought her daughter was too timid. Now she is confident and likes being up on the catwalk, Wang said. I don't consider her income. I care about what she has learned and experienced. Legal issues Although Chinas labor law forbids employers from hiring people under the age of 16, with parents as their agents, most child models dont sign contracts directly with companies and do not work full-time. This causes problems when it comes to law enforcement, Fang explained. According to Chinas advertisement law, children under 10 years old are forbidden to be endorsers, but the law does not stipulate that they cannot be involved in commercial advertising. Chinas current advertisement law isn't workable when it comes to the industry of child modeling, as it lacks clear supervision measures and clear legal punishment, he added. Due to the boom of the child modeling industry worldwide, many countries have issued new laws to protect the rights of minors. For example, since 2013, all child models who live or work in New York State are covered by the labor law and regulations as child performers, while child models must have a child performer permit, issued by the department of labor, before they begin work. It is important to issue new laws which regulate child modeling, and its compatibility with its international counterparts needs to be improved, added Fang. [April 11, 2019] GardaWorld recognized as an employer of choice for Veterans MONTREAL, April 11, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - On Wednesday, April 10th, 2019 GardaWorld received the Veterans Employment Transition Award for its contribution to the employment of Veterans, Reservists and Military Spouses at the Annual Celebration of Service on Parliament Hill Ceremonies. This event brings Parliamentarians of all parties, military members, citizens, and business leaders together to recognize the extraordinary work of Canadians that support military men and women and families of those who have served. GardaWorld was chosen to be recognized this year because of its outstanding dedication to employing Veterans, Reservists and Military Spouses in all aspects of its business, both in Canada and Internationally. The Honourable Erin O'Toole, founder of the Celebration of Service said; "It is great to see Canadian success stories like GardaWorld step up to show the value of hiring Canadian Armed Forces Veterans and Reservists. Veterans have a range of talents and direct leadership experience that allow them to transition into companies like GardaWorld who have high-level operations in Canada and globally." The Honourable Erin O'Toole continues, "The government must help those who served and sacrificed in their transition to a second career, so that they can put down roots, raise a family and be involved in their community. The government, however, cannot do it alone; we need great companies lke GardaWorld, VIA Rail, and Bank of Montreal who recognize the tremendous skills our veterans and reservists have and give them the opportunity to succeed." In presenting the award, Leona Alleslev, Member of Parliament and a Veteran herself said: "GardaWorld, as a leader in the international security industry, has demonstrated true leadership in supporting the great Canadian men and women who truly understand the meaning of service." GardaWorld implemented a best-in-class Military Program, run by Veterans, to actively recruit Veterans, Reservists and Military Spouses and to assist them to succeed. GardaWorld has been active in supporting True Patriot Love and the Veterans Transition Network to establish the first ever Veterans Transition Program in French and in Quebec for female veterans. GardaWorld also supports the military on national and local levels and has adopted a Reservist Leave Policy that exceeds legal requirements and that ensures that Reservists employed by GardaWorld are able to continue to serve, have time off for career courses and deployments. "As a veteran, working for GardaWorld was a smooth transition. There are a lot of opportunities, in Canada or overseas. You can be a security guard, cash messenger or work in management, etc. There are a lot of possibilities that an individual with a military background can benefit from at GardaWorld." Lisa Fara, Customer Service Manager "GardaWorld is proud to receive this recognition but is more honoured to be able to assist the fantastic Canadians who serve our country and deserve every opportunity for career success. GardaWorld commits to continually giving back and hire these outstanding Canadians. Not only is it good to do, it makes our business better" mentioned the Honourable Christian Paradis, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development, Security Services at GardaWorld. About GardaWorld GardaWorld is the world's largest privately owned security services company, offering cash services, physical and specialized security solutions and, with the Crisis24 portal, the dissemination of vetted information related to international security. A partner of choice for private companies, governments, humanitarian organizations, and multinationals with personnel all over the world, GardaWorld employs more than 90,000 highly skilled, dedicated professionals who serve a diverse clientele in North America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In the complex world we live in, our reputation is based on the quality of our services, as well as the commitment and integrity of our people. For more information about GardaWorld military employment program, visit garda.com/military. SOURCE Garda World Security Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Blackline Safety opens doors to newly-renovated HQ, prepared for global demand in connected safety Blackline consolidates two facilities under one roof in the historic 1927 brick-and-steel Dominion Bridge building CALGARY, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Growing global demand for Blackline Safety's (TSXV: BLN) cloud-hosted safety wearables has spurred the company to renovate Calgary's historic Dominion Bridge building. This 25,000 square foot facility once manufactured steel products to support Alberta's early economy. Freshly renovated, Blackline is breathing new life into this location with a focus on product development, sales, manufacturing and delivery of safety technology to a broad range of industries around the world. Justin Mayerchak, Senior Vice President & Partner at Colliers International in Calgary said, "In a market where inner-city vacancy sits north of 20% and business optimism remains stubbornly low, Blackline Safety is helping diversify the local economy by employing highly skilled professionals designing industry-leading IoT solutions, including web software, embedded firmware, and electronics manufacturing in order to build better safety products designed to protect lives in the industrial and commercial sectors. In its Ramsay-based facility, Blackline Safety has the space needed to grow its hi-tech manufacturing and 24-hour client monitoring, in an environment reflective of the organization's dynamic corporate culture. Blackline is a great example of the entrepreneurial spirit and technological expertise the city of Calgary should be known for. We are proud to be Blackline's partner on this journey." "Blackline searched the city for over a year to locate the ideal character space that represents our corporate values of integrity trust, customer commitment and mastery of innovation," said Kevin Meyers, Chief Operating Officer at Blackline Safety. "With over 140 personnel under one roof, our bold new facility blends historical elements with the space and infrastructure needed to develop leading technologies while fulfilling customer demand. Our new location in Dominion Bridge establishes our presence in Calgary as an employer of choice, to attract additional talented, passionate and driven individuals who are looking to make their mark with a global leader in safety." Blackline develops and manufactures connected safety wearables in-house and serves a broad range of global industries including energy, utilities, manufacturing, aerospace, heavy industry, pharmaceuticals and foods and beverages. Blackline's G7 product line offers the world's only cellular-connected wearable that addresses lone worker monitoring, gas detection, emergency response and evacuation management while helping businesses increase efficiency through easy communications and location-enabled data analytics. Upcoming Events Blackline Safety's Annual General Meeting for shareholders will take place in its new headquarters on Tuesday, April 16 at 3 pm. An open house event will take place at Blackline's new headquarters for investors, customers, vendors, partners and the media on Wednesday, May 15 from 3:30 to 5:30 pm. For more information about these events, contact [email protected]. To learn more about Blackline Safety's connected portfolio, visit www.BlacklineSafety.com and follow Blackline Safety on Twitter @BlacklineSafety. About Blackline Safety: Blackline Safety is a global connected safety technology leader. Providing comprehensive live-monitoring and wireless gas detection, we help teams working in hazardous environments respond to emergencies in real-time and manage efficient evacuations, accounting for everyone's safety along the way. With millions invested in technology research and development, Blackline Safety is recognized for quality and innovation. Our talented team of designers and engineers create and manufacture in-house from wearable technology and personal gas detectors to cloud-hosted infrastructure and web-based interfaces for global industry. We deliver the world's first turn-key, work-anywhere, connected safety monitoring solution with gas detection, 3G wireless, satellite communications, two-way speakerphone, employee messaging and live monitoring to meet the demanding safety challenges and increase productivity of organizations in over 100 countries. For more information, visit www.BlacklineSafety.com 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. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blackline-safety-opens-doors-to-newly-renovated-hq-prepared-for-global-demand-in-connected-safety-300831032.html SOURCE Blackline Safety Corp. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Sealed Air to Hold Conference Call to Discuss First Quarter 2019 Results Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) announced today that it will release its first quarter 2019 results at approximately 7:00 a.m. (ET) on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 and will host a conference call and webcast at 10:00 a.m. (ET). Ted Doheny, President and CEO, and Bill Stiehl, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will conduct the investor conference call. The conference call will be webcast live on the Investors homepage at www.sealedair.com/investors. A replay of the webcast will also be available thereafter. Investors who cannot access the webcast may listen to the conference call live via telephone by dialing (855) 472-5411 (domestic) or (330) 863-3389 (international) and use the participant code 3499158. Telephonic replay of the webcast will be available starting at 1:00 p.m. (ET) on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 and end on Friday, May 31, 2019 at 1:00 p.m. (ET). To listen to the replay, please dial (855) 859-2056 (domestic) or (404) 537-3406 (international) and use the confirmation code 3499158. About Sealed Air Sealed Air partners with customers to solve their most critical packaging challenges with innovative solutions that leave our world, environment, and communities better than we found them. Our portfolio of widely recognized brands includes Cryovac food packaging and Bubble Wrap protective packaging which respectively enable a safer, more efficient food supply chain and protect valuable goods shipped around the world. Sealed Air generated $4.7 billion in sales in 2018 and has approximately 15,500 employees who serve customers in 123 countries. To learn more, visit www.sealedair.com. Website Information We routinely post important information for investors on our website, www.sealedair.com, in the Investors section. We use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC (News - Alert) filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning our business, consolidated financial condition and results of operations. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by such words as "anticipates," "believes," "plan," "assumes," "could," "should," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "potential," "seek," "predict," "may," "will" and similar references to future periods. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release regarding our strategies, prospects, financial condition, operations, costs, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding expected future operating results, expectations regarding the results of restructuring and other programs, anticipated levels of capital expenditures and expectations of the effect on our financial condition of claims, litigation, environmental costs, contingent liabilities and governmental and regulatory investigations and proceedings. The following are important factors that we believe could cause actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements: global economic and political conditions, currency translation and devaluation effects, changes in raw material pricing and availability, competitive conditions, the success of new product offerings, consumer preferences, the effects of animal and food-related health issues, pandemics, changes in energy costs, environmental matters, the success of our restructuring activities, the success of our financial growth, profitability, cash generation and manufacturing strategies and our cost reduction and productivity efforts, changes in our credit ratings, the tax benefit associated with the Settlement agreement (as defined in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K), regulatory actions and legal matters, and the other information referenced in the "Risk Factors" section appearing in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and as revised and updated by our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking statement made by us is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005582/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [April 11, 2019] Vonage's Applications Group President to Leave the Company at Completion of Integration HOLMDEL, N.J., April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Vonage (NYSE: VG), a global leader in business cloud communications, announced today that Dennis Fois, Vonage's Applications Group President and former CEO of NewVoiceMedia, has informed the Company of his intention to step down from his role to become Chief Executive Officer of a private technology company. Vonage has initiated a global search for a new Applications Group lead. Mr. Fois will remain at the Company through April 30, 2019, and Alan Masarek, Vonage CEO, will assume interim leadership of the Applications Group until the search is completed. "We acquired NewVoiceMedia to accelerate Vonage's growth strategy and leadership position in cloud communications, strengthen our presence with global mid-market and enterprise clients, and deepen our integrations and key go-to-market relationships with CRM providers," Mr. Masarek said. Mr. Masarek continued, "Dennis has been a great partner and helped lead a smooth integration of NewVoiceMedia into Vonage, including the creation of the Applications Group and its go-to-market strategy. We are grateful for the work he's done to help position Vonage for continued success." Mr. Fois commented, "I am very proud of the many significant achievements at NewVoiceMedia, most important of which was the combination with Vonage to create a global leader in cloud communications. Vonage is uniquely positioned in the marketplace with its own technology stack across unified communications, contact center, and programmable APIs, and this allos Vonage to best respond to customer needs." "While I have decided to leave Vonage to pursue my passion to be a CEO, I am confident that Vonage's talented team is well positioned to execute on its strategy for 2019 and beyond. I believe that Vonage is among the best in the rapidly evolving cloud communications industry," Mr. Fois added. Since closing the acquisition of NewVoiceMedia, Vonage has integrated its teams across the business including Sales, Product, Engineering, Finance, Marketing and HR. The Company recently launched CX Cloud Express , a NewVoiceMedia-based contact center solution integrated with Vonage Business Cloud, to meet the growing demand for a combined unified communications and contact center solution. About Vonage Vonage (NYSE:VG) is redefining business communications, helping enterprises use fully-integrated unified communications, contact center, and programmable communications solutions to improve how business gets done. True to our roots as a technology disruptor, we've embraced technology to transform how companies connect, collaborate and communicate to create better business outcomes. Vonage's fully-integrated cloud communications platform built on a microservices-based architecture enables businesses to collaborate more productively and engage their customers more effectively across all channels, including messaging, chat, social media, video and voice. Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey, with offices throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. (vg-a) View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vonages-applications-group-president-to-leave-the-company-at-completion-of-integration-300831079.html SOURCE Vonage [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Employers Holdings, Inc. Schedules First Quarter 2019 Earnings Release and Conference Call Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG), a Nevada-based company whose subsidiaries are specialty providers of workers' compensation insurance focused on small businesses, will review the Company's first quarter 2019 financial results during a conference call and webcast on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. PDT. The webcast will be accessible on the Employers Holdings, Inc. web site at www.employers.com through the "Investors" link. An archived version of the webcast will remain on the Employers Holdings, Inc. web site for up to seven days following the live webcast. To listen to a recording of the call by telephone, dial +1 (404) 537-3406 or +1 (855) 859-2056 and use the conference call access code 4049627. Employers Holdings, Inc. will release earnings after market close on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 after which these materials will be available on the Company's web site at www.employers.com through the "Investors" link. 2019 EMPLOYERS. All rights reserved. EMPLOYERS and America's small business insurance specialist are registered trademarks of Employers Insurance Company of Nevada. Insurance is offered through Employers Compensation Insurance Company, Employers Insurance Company of Nevada, Employers Preferred Insurance Company, and Employers Assurance Company. Not all insurers do business in all jurisdictions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190411005906/en/ Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G has launched in Korea. And already, some folks are complaining about connectivity woes. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) Citing posts owners have made on Internet sites, Business Korea is reporting that many Galaxy S10 5G owners are having connectivity problems when the handset switches from 5G to LTE. The phone apparently has no issue connecting to 5G networks, but when folks move away from 5G and need to connect to LTE, data service is turned off and they lose a connection to the internet. Worst of all, the smartphone doesn't get back its connection until users try to reboot the device several times over. Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G is the fourth model in the company's Galaxy S10 lineup. Samsung has previously released a budget-friendly Galaxy S10e, as well as the standard Galaxy S10. The Galaxy S10 Plus has been the highest-end model until the Galaxy S10 5G launched. For now, the Galaxy S10 5G is available only in Korea. Samsung is expected to start pre-orders on the Galaxy S10 5G in the U.S. this month and launch it on May 16 to Verizon's network as a short-term exclusive. The smartphone will come to other U.S. carriers later this year. MORE: First Verizon 5G Speed Tests: Here's How Fast It Is It's unclear exactly what is causing the problems in Korea, according to the Business Korea report. Samsung has apparently said that it has delivered all of the software required for the phone to know to switch seamlessly from one network to another. SK Telecom and LG U+, two of Korea's carriers, said that they have properly updated 5G base stations with software and haven't heard any complaints. "We have never received such complaints and found no such problem," KT told Business Korea. We surpassed 30,000 subscribers at 5:50 p.m. on the second day of the launch of the Galaxy S10 5G." That said, one unidentified carrier official in Korea said the problem might be due to some sort of breakdown in telecommunications equipment not allowing for a seamless transition from one technology to another. Whatever the case, it's bad news for Samsung and Korea's 5G network, which the country wanted up quickly to be the first in the world. Of course, 5G is just starting to roll out, so the issue will only affect a small number of people for now. But issues like this will cause some folks to wait a bit longer to get Samsung's new device until the issues are worked out. Nvidia released today the drivers that will enable ray tracing on GTX graphics cards. Gamers can find the ray tracing driver on Nvidia's GeForce Now application or by doing a manual search on the company's website. (Image credit: Tom's Guide ) You'll need to download the latest Game Ready driver for your specific card to use the feature. If you want to know what visual improvements ray tracing brings, Nvidia also released a downloadable Star Wars demo as well as ray tracing showcase demos for Justice and Atomic Heart. Here is a full list of GPUs gaining DXR (DirectX Ray Tracing) support: GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GeForce GTX 1660 NVIDIA TITAN Xp (2017) NVIDIA TITAN X (2016) GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GeForce GTX 1080 GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GeForce GTX 1070 GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Be warned, however, that your graphics settings will need to be dialed down in order to comfortably play the current crop of games that support ray tracing, which includes Battlefield V, Atomic Heart, Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Justice. That's because the last-generation GTX cards use traditional shader cores and don't have dedicated RT cores like the new RTX components. Benchmarks released by Nvidia show a significant performance gap between RTX and GTX cards when ray tracing is enabled. As you can see in the above chart, even the flagship GeForce GTX 1080 Ti card can't run Metro Exodus at our 30-fps playability threshold. In its defense, these benchmarks were run at 2560x1440 resolution with graphics settings set to Ultra. It's also important to note that performance varies depending on which method and how aggressively a game uses ray tracing. For example, Battlefield V uses the technique for simple reflections whereas Metro Exous features Global Illumination, which produces accurate lighting by taking every object in an environment into account. But even with that in mind, GTX cards struggled to play Battlefield V whereas their RTX equivalents achieved more than double the frame rates. The bottom line is that GTX GPU owners who want the benefits of ray tracing on their gaming PC will need to drop to 1080p resolution while Geforce GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 users might be better off keeping ray tracing off altogether. Despite these limitations, Nvidia clarified that developers will not adjust their games to have a lower-quality ray tracing, nor will they update them for GTX cards. Our best advice is to buy an RTX card if you're enamored by ray tracing effects and are interested in the few games that support it. It's simple physics. The warmer your PC gets, the worse it performs, as the CPU and GPU throttle themselves to avoid overheating. So anything you can do to improve cooling will allow these chips to increase their clock speeds. In a notebook chassis, cooling is a particular challenge, to which Acer's new Predator Helios 700 has a unique solution: a "HyperDrift" keyboard that slides forward to reveal two fans and vents. Those fans are Acer's 4th Gen AeroBlade 3D fans, which uses 0.1mm serrated fan blades to keep the noise low while pushing plenty of air around. On the inside, five copper heat pipes, a vapor chamber help with the thermals. Acer's CoolBoost technology adjusts the fan speed to provide the right balance between low temperatures and low noise levels. Available this month for a starting price of $2,699 with UK availability in July, the 17-inch Helios 700 has beefy specs that will take advantage of the improved cooling. It will come with up to an Intel 9th Gen Core i9 CPU, Nvidia RTX 2080 or 2070 non-Max Q GPUs, and as much as 64GB of DDR memory. Acer promises that you'll be able to overclock both the CPU and the GPU with ease. A Turbo hotkey on the keyboard launches the PredatorSense software that allows you to control the performance settings. The 17-inch IPS display uses Nvidia's G-Sync technology and operates at 144 Hz, which should allow for some very smooth, tear-free frame rates. It also promises a 3ms response time. In addition to increasing airflow, the HyperDrift keyboard has another trick up its sleeve, a set of "MagForce" WASD keys that use "analog-like" linear switches. Acer claims that you'll be able to get more precise movements in games, based on how hard you press the keys. It also has per-key RGB lighting. Hands On With HyperDrift and MagForce In our brief hands-on time with the Predator Helios 700 at Acer's press event, we came away with mixed feelings about the Helios 700's key keyboard features. Moving the keys way from the screen by a few inches feels more comfortable and natural for gaming and productivity, and the way the wrist area tilts down when the keyboard is extended makes it feel more like you're using a mechanical desktop keyboard, complete with a comfy wrist rest. But you'll need a fair amount of desk depth to plop this 17-inch system down and slide out its keyboard. When that's not an option, you can of course use the keyboard with the sliding mechanism closed. We were told that the MagForce WASD keys use an optical sensor to achieve their adjustable actuation, but exact details about the range of actuation remain unclear. While analogue keyboards have been around for awhile (see our review of the Wooting One), support for analog input isn't universal, and the appeal tends to lean more toward some types of games (like racing) than others (like shooters). And while the feel of the WASD keys was OK (the keys felt a little loose, but we'll reserve judgement there until we get to test a final review unit), the difference in feel between the rest of the keys and the WASD keys was a bit jarring, at least at first. Our biggest reservation about the HyperDrift keyboard has to do with build quality. The mechanism that lets you slide the keys down (by pressing on the deck or wrist area and pulling down gently) felt good, but not great--we'd like it if it felt a bit smoother. And the portion of the wrist rest and touchpad that flops down at an angle when the keyboard is extended felt a bit plasticky and and cheap on the underside. We're a bit skeptical about how well it will hold up over time, but of course we'll have to see how things feel when we get to spend more time with a final review unit. There was also a lot of flex on the underside when we lifted the laptop up to take photos. But perhaps that's to be expected given its 9.9-pound (4.5Kg) weight. Powerful gaming laptops are usually bulky and heavy, and the Helios 700 is no exception. Helios 300 Acer is also refreshing its popular Predator Helios 300 laptop. Available in April for a starting price of $1,199 in the U.S. (June and a TBD price for the UK), the Helios 300 will sport a 9th Gen Core i7 CPU, Nvidia RTX 2070 graphics with Max-Q, up to 32GB of RAM and up to two PCIe SSDs. The notebooks' design is also changing a bit. The Helios 300 will get the same teal blue keyboard backlighting and accents as other Predators, along with a slimmer bezel and hipper keyboard fonts. The screen, available in 15.6 or 17.3-inch sizes, will operate at 144 Hz. Like the Helios 700, the Helios 300 will be overclockable and will use the new 4th Generation AeroBlade 3D fans. Sony Crystal LED screen. (Image credit: Sony) At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show in Las Vegas, Sony announced the worlds largest high-resolution display featuring a 16k resolution, as well as Sonys Crystal LED display based on microLED technology. Sony's 16k Crystal LED Display Sonys 16k display has a diagonal measurement of 783 and has four times as many pixels as an 8K TV, but the company didnt give details on the vertical resolution. The larger-than-life screen is 19.2 meters (63 feet) long and 5.4 meters (17 feet) high, so the vertical resolution likely isn't very high. This makes some sense, as walls can only be so tall, but it ultimately means Sony uses a non-standard resolution that is not a direct upscaling of 4K and 8K. Sony has started before that its modular and bezel-less Crystal LED screens can be arranged in any shape, even ones that dont look like a typical TV, as we can see in Sonys promotional image below: (Image credit: Sony) The Crystal LED screen Sony unveiled in Las Vegas is currently being installed at a new research center in Japan. These 16K screens will likely remain a high-end product for the corporate world for now, but Sony intends to sell smaller variations to offices, cinemas, and even consumers in the near future. MicroLED Technology MicroLED technology is basically OLED tech that doesnt have burn-in issues because it doesnt use any organic material to create the self-emitting diodes that dont require a backlight (as LCDs do). This translates to a longer life for the microLED displays as opposed to OLED displays, and it also has other advantages such as better efficiency and higher brightness. Sonys new Crystal LED screens promise a brightness level of up to 1000 cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, as well as support for HDR, 10-bit color processing, and a wide color gamut that is 140% of sRGB. To Help Build Affordable Housing, Kansas City Voters Might Have To Raise Their Taxes Kansas City voters may be staring down another tax hike come November - this time to try to address the city's lack of affordable housing. Last year, Kansas City officials established a $75 million trust fund with the aim of creating or preserving 5,000 affordable housing units but didn't specify how it would be funded. Even politicos are fearful of putting this issue on the ballot after the Pre-K tax went. . . Bilking hard working local voters out of more cash will be a tougher sell then money to educate youngsters. Take a look: Get Well Soon To KCFD Hero KC firefighter suffers burns fighting house fire on Benton Boulevard A firefighter was injured Wednesday evening battling a fire in a vacant home.Kansas City firefighters were called at 5 p.m. to the house, which is located near East 33rd Street and Benton Boulevard.Fire crews said the firefighter suffered burns and was taken to a hospital.Investigators said it appears the fire started on the second floor of the house. Cleaning Up The Golden Ghetto When will the street sweeper hit my block in Overland Park? OVERLAND PARK, Mo. - To keep up with public requests for street sweeping, the city of Overland Park, Kansas created a website showing the sweeper schedule and which neighborhoods operators have already cleaned. The new website is available The city sweeps streets twice a year, in the spring and fall. Fight For Booze Freedom Johnson County breweries want to get rid of old law SHAWNEE, Kan. - A law that has been on the books in Johnson County since the 1980s requires businesses that want to sell alcohol to make a minimum of 30 percent of their revenue from food sales. Now, local breweries are banding together to get the rule changed. Building LGBT Community Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City celebrates its first Pride Build KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City is celebrating its first Pride Build. Members of the LGBTQ community, or anyone in support, was welcomed to volunteer building homes with the organization. On Wednesday, a group from Wells Fargo worked on a home in the Manheim Park neighborhood. Yet Another Sign Of The Downtown Kansas City Revival City-wide Easter Egg Hunt set for Liberty Memorial City-Wide Easter Egg Hunt - Bounce houses, petting zoo, cookie decorating, crafts, EGG HUNTS, an appearance from the Easter Bunny, free Roasterie coffee and more! Join Church of the Resurrection Downtown for an event the whole family will enjoy, this Saturday, April 13 from 9-11 a.m. at the WWI Museum and Memorial. Focused On Kim. K Hotness Kim Kardashian in Vogue Magazine Photoshoot - May 2019 Kim Kardashian in Vogue Magazine Photoshoot - May 2019, Kim Kardashian, Magazine, Photoshoot, Vogue, TKC Obviously Omitted From This List Local Heroes You could argue that our town is full of superheroes. In this episode, we look back at some of our favorite conversations with "ordinary" Kansas Citians Apropos for #TBT we share news of a surprising transformation from a hottie who is now evolving after years dominating the media scene . . .Closer to home, here's our space from some of the nicer & community local news with another peek at Kim K. goodness . . .is the #TBT song of the day and this is thefor right now . . . Lexus is joining the minivan segment with the upcoming release of the LM minivan. Yes, you read that right. Lexus, the same company that gave us the LFA supercar, is dipping its toes in the minivan market, proving that automakers will do just about anything to make money these days. The automaker has yet to unveil the LM minivan thats happening at the upcoming Auto Shanghai 2019 that kicks off on April 16 in Shanghai, China but a teaser image of the model has provided clear hints that the model will be largely based on the Toyota Alphard. Yes; the same luxury van that Toyota has been selling in various Asian markets for the better part of 17 years. Production plans for the Lexus LM suggest that well see the minivan hit the road sometime in 2020, though its unlikely that well get to see the LM in the U.S. What is the Lexus LM Should we be surprised that Lexus is entering the minivan segment? If you want to answer that question, youre going to need to do so with a little perspective. In the U.S. market, for example, a Lexus minivan doesnt make sense. Minivans have gone down in popularity in recent years, and that trend isnt about to change anytime soon with the growing popularity of crossovers and SUVs. Even Toyotas resident minivan, the Sienna, has fallen on hard times. Last year, Toyota sold only 87,672 units of the Sienna in the U.S. Thats a huge drop from the 111,489 units the automaker sold in 2017, and even then, sales of the Sienna have fallen each year since 2015 when Toyota sold a record 137,497 units of the Sienna in the U.S. The first three months of 2019 hasnt been any kinder, either. From January to March, Toyota has only sold 18,616 units, a sharp drop from the 23,619 units it sold in the first three months of last year. Imagine, then, if Lexus decides to offer a luxury minivan in a market that doesnt buy this type of vehicle as often as it used to. So, why is Lexus pushing forward with the LM when it knows that it cant count on the U.S. market to make it a profitable endeavor? The short answer? Its not selling the LM in the U.S.; its selling the minivan in Asia. Thats why the Lexus LM is debuting at Auto Shanghai 2019. Thats also why the LM looks like a rebadged version of the Toyota Alphard, a minivan that has never set foot in the U.S. market as a mass-produced model. By contrast, the Alphard has been sold in the Japanese market, as well as other Asian markets, since 2002 when the first-generation model arrived. The Alphard is now in its third-generation, and sales remain strong, particularly in Japan, China, and other Asian countries like Bahrain, Belarus, Oman, and the Philippines. The Philippine market is actually a good example of how popular the Alphard is in the Asian market. The Philippine market doesnt have the reach or clout of the Chinese and Japanese markets, but the Alphard is such a popular model in the country that it routinely sells out whenever a fresh batch of models arrive. Back in October 2018, Lexus Manila, Inc. president Raymond Rodriguez even told local car news outlet Auto Industriya that hes pushing for Lexus to come up with a more luxurious version of the Toyota Alphard because it could ease the demand for the Alphard and push more buyers towards Lexus, even if it means paying more for a Lexus-badged minivan. Well, it looks like Raymond Rodriguez is going to have his wish. Rumors of a Lexus minivan have been swirling for some time now. Earlier this year, the Lexus Enthusiast forum uncovered production plans for a Lexus minivan, which is slated to begin sometime in 2020 at Toyotas production facility in Inabe, Japan. More recently, Lexus Taiwan posted a teaser of a front grille on its Facebook page. The teaser was accompanied by the tagline, the Luxury of Space. It didnt explicitly say that kind of model its going to be, but it sure isnt going to be a compact luxury sedan or even a luxury crossover. When you talk about space, you talk about an SUV or a van, and if youve ever been inside a Toyota Alphard, youll know that the minivan isnt lacking in space and luxury. I bear witness to this. Ive ridden a Toyota Alphard many times, and the vans interior is as sleek as it is spacious. The second-row seats are made up of captains chairs that can be configured in many ways, including the option to turn them into a version of a Lazy-Boy, complete with a footrest that can be pulled out from underneath the seat. The third row comes in the form of a bench seat, but theres enough cushion and support in the seat that youd think of it more like a sofa than one of those stiff rear seats you normally find in lesser minivans. More importantly, the Alphard is available with a wealth of interior options, more often of the luxury variety. You can avail heated seats, iPads on the rear seats, ambient lighting, and a lot more. Its no wonder that the Alphard is marketed primarily as a luxury van in the Asian market. Its no surprise, then, that the Alphard is often available as chauffeur rides in some of the biggest and most luxurious hotel chains across Asia. The next time you have a business trip in Asia and youre staying in a posh hotel; theres a good chance that youll get picked up in the airport by a chauffeur driving a Toyota Alphard. Now, imagine what a more luxurious version of the Toyota Alphard could look like. Unless were thrown for a bit of a surprise, thats what were going to see next week when the Lexus LM makes its debut at Auto Shanghai 2019. The teaser image Lexus unveiled shows the side profile of the model, and its a dead-ringer for the Toyota Alphard. The size is the same. The dimensions are the same. Heck, the cuts and lines on the sides of the van remain the same, too. About the only difference we can expect to see is the front and, possibly, the rear. The Lexus LM will adopt Lexus design language up front, including the automakers signature headlamp design and its absurdly large spindle front grille. Given that the Alphard features its own massive grille, Lexus shouldnt have any problems fitting its own in all that space. Power and performance will be the most curious aspect of the Lexus LM, in large part because the Toyota Alphard already features a 3.6-liter V-6 engine that produces 296 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque. Sure, Lexus shouldnt have any problems raising the bar in terms of the LMs own engine options the Alphard is also offered as a hybrid model but if it does offer more power, we could be looking at a supposed minivan whose engine packs more than 300 horsepower. Whatever happens, its going to be interesting to see what Lexus has cooked up with the LM minivan. Is it going to be just a rebadged version of the Toyota Alphard, or does Toyotas luxury arm have something more in store for us? Were about to find out real soon, and I cant wait for that day to come. Personally, I think the Toyota Alphard is one of the most underrated vehicles in the industry. Its not the best-looking ride, for sure, but it offers so much to the table that a lot of people dont realize. Thats probably because half the world doesnt get the chance to, but if the Lexus LM ends up being a better version of the Alphard, everyone in the U.S. and Europe, for that matter should pay close attention to it. Who knows, it might end up in those markets in the future if the demand justifies it. Further reading Read our full review on the 2018 Toyota Sienna. Audi isnt giving up on performance diesel engines just yet, at least not for Europe. Audi just revealed the all-new 2020 S6 (available as either a sedan or wagon) and S7, and they come with different power plants depending on where theyre sold. For Europe, Audi has elected to offer the S6 and S7 a V-6 TDI engine, while in North America, Asia, and other markets, these models will be sold exclusively with a gasoline-powered V-6 TFSI. Audi will sell new S6 and S7 with a diesel in Europe and a twin-turbo V-6 everywhere else LISTEN 05:18 The 2020 Audi S6 and S7 Pack Some Serious Power With Smaller Engines Previous incarnations of the Audi S6 and S7 were only sold with a gasoline-powered, 4.0-liter, TFSI, V-8, but for this generation, Audi has chosen the exact same tactic as it did for the SQ5 performance SUV. In other words, you wont be able to order a gasoline-burning S6, S6 Avant or S7 on the Old Continent at all, so if you want one, its going to have to drink from the black pump. The 3.0-liter TDI does have a mild hybrid system integrated and with it, it is able to pump out 349 horsepower and 700 Nm (516 pound-feet) of torque. Claimed sprint time for this engine to 100 km/h (62 mph) is 5 seconds flat for the S6 TDI sedan and 5.1 seconds for the S6 TDI Avant and the S7 TDI. Their top speed is identical, though, an electronically-limited 250 km/h (155 mph.) Engine 3.0-liter V-6 TDI Horsepower 349 HP Torque 516 LB-FT 0 to 100 km/h 5 seconds Top Speed 155 mph Fuel consumption 6.5 l/100km / 36.1 mpg And being a diesel, Audi claims none of the models will require more than 6.5 l/100km / 36.1 mpg U.S., so you get quite a bit of performance without much of a fuel efficiency penalty - this is the main advantage provided by a diesel performance car, a concept thats nowhere near as foreign to Europeans as it is to Americans. But even with this impressive performance and efficiency, there will still be people out there who would prefer the gasoline engine in Europe had it been available and, in its absence, these people will probably look to another manufacturer for solutions. The gasoline-burning S6 and S7 run a 2.9-liter, twin-turbo, V-6 with considerably more power - 444 horsepower - and less torque - 443 pound-feet (600 Nm). It also has a 48-volt mild hybrid system, but Audi has so far only mentioned economy numbers for the European models. Non-Euro S6 and S7 models will definitely be penalized at the pump compared to their diesel counterparts, however, they will probably be around a second quicker to 62 mph (100 km/h), will sound better, and will be a bit more responsive to prods of the throttle. The same engine powers the 2019 Audi RS5 coupe and in that application it can propel the car from naught to 100 km/h or 62 mph in a very brisk 3.7 seconds. If you were to remove its electronic speed governor, itd reach 300 km/h or 186 mph. In the heavier S6 and S7, though, the sprint time will be a bit slower, probably around the 4.5- second mark. Both models rely on an eight-speed automatic transmission and the Quattro all-wheel-drive system to send their engines power to the road. The Quattro system has an automatic locking center differential that usually splits the power 40:60, but in extreme cases, it can send up to 70 percent of all power to the front or as much as 80 percent to the back. The car will also use its brakes to scrub the inner wheel speed in order to improve the cars cornering characteristics. Bits that the S6, S6 Avant and S7 share include special, quicker steering racks, stiffer and lower suspension, and bigger brakes (15.7-inch front rotors and 13.8-inch rear rotors). Theres also standard all-wheel steering (a first for any of these models), as well as optional adaptive air suspension that should provide superior comfort over the standard steel spring setup found on the A6 and A7. In terms of visual differentiation over the A6, the S6 has a unique grille, unique front bumper design, complete with a splitter-like design element, a unique rear bumper with beefy quad exhausts, as well as 20-inch wheels exclusive to this model. The S7 also has different side skirts and enlarged front air intakes too. Well have to wait and see how this diesel-only in Europe approach for the S6 and S7 works out for Audi as it might backfire and affect sales. Why didnt the automaker offer both versions in Europe? We really dont know because no justification is provided in the official press blurb announcing the model. In Europe, you can order your S6 sedan from 76,500, the S6 Avant wagon from 79,000, and the more exclusive S7 fastback from 82,750. Pricing for the S6 and S7 outside of Europe has yet to be announced. Audi S6 sedan 76,500 Audi S6 Avant 79,000 Audi S7 82,750 Further reading Read our full review on the 2020 Audi S7. Read our full review on the 2020 Audi S6 sedan. Read our full review on the 2020 Audi S6 Avant. Coffee lovers and coffee connoisseurs got together last week to taste some great brews at the newly-opened specialty coffee house Baristas (TRAVPR.COM) UAE - April 11th, 2019 - Coffee lovers and coffee connoisseurs got together last week to taste some great brews at the newly-opened specialty coffee house Baristas Corner at Canal Central Hotel Business Bay. The guests were treated to a variety of coffee flavours from TAF coffee roasters, in cooperation with Cascara Coffee Company, that were prepared by the talented baristas and served with magical views of Burj Khalifa at La Cruise Terrace. What makes a great coffee? Mr. Abdulla Alabdulla, Partner and Co-Founder of Baristas Corner said, It is a combination of high-quality coffee and the unique brewing process. At Baristas Corner we adhere to the highest standards using the finest ingredients and state-of-the art coffee machines and equipment by Dalla Corte. The wide array of coffees at Baristas Corner are handpicked matching exceptional grade with perfect ratios and flavor compositions. Mr. Mohamed Hassan Alshamsi, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Baristas Corner pointed out, We want the best for our customers, so we have partnered with TAF Coffee Roasters and Cascara Coffee Company. There are many distinctive and diverse flavors of coffees to explore on the Baristas Corner menu. The single origin beans and bespoke blends are selectively sourced from different corners of the globes sustainable farms, estates, and roasters including countries like Brazil, Columbia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and many more. Baristas Corner is the perfect place to meet up with friends or business associates for a quick coffee, a leisurely bite, an afternoon pick-me-up, or a break anytime in between. The design aesthetics at the coffee house strike the right note by creating a welcoming and relaxing ambience for people seeking to escape the citys frantic pace. Follow Us on @CanalCentralAE @BaristasCornerOfficial #CanalCentalAE #CentralHotels #BaristasCorner About Central Hotels Central Hotels has very quickly established itself as a reputed hotel management group in the UAE with its flagship property First Central Hotel Suites located in Barsha Heights (TECOM) near Sheikh Zayed Road. Building up on this amazing success, the brand is now poised to expand its footprint targeting the UAE as the primary market for growth in addition to other lucrative destinations in the Middle East. The group has recently added to its portfolio spectacular new 5-star hotels such as Canal Central Business Bay and Royal Central The Palm followed by Central House Citywalk focused on millennials, Beach Central The Palm, Diamond Central - Business Bay, and Island Central in Dubai. For more information visit www.central-hotels.com For Marketing Contact Rania Helal Cluster Director of Marketing Central Hotels M: +971 54 586 0013| T: +971 4 873 9300 r.helal@central-hotels.com www.central-hotels.com For Media Contact: Hina Bakht Managing Director EVOPS Marketing & PR M: +971 50 6975146 | T: +971 4 566 7355 Hina.bakht@evops-pr.com www.evops-pr.com ### Tucked away since the late 1930s, a huge haul of fossils shows that the state's coastal plains were a veritable "Texas Serengeti." During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) came up with all kinds of jobs to help Americans make a living. During its eight years of existence, the federal agency put some 8.5 million people to work. While the WPA is best known for its big public works and infrastructure work, other projects were sponsored as well. One such project may not have garnered much attention back in the day, but thanks to a team of modern-day researchers, the fruits of that work are now getting the attention they deserve. The project was the State-Wide Paleontologic-Mineralogic Survey, funded by the WPA in partnership with The University of Texas (UT) Bureau of Economic Geology. From 1939 to 1941, unemployed Texans got to don their paleontology hats and become fossil hunters, collecting fossils and minerals across the state. Tens of thousands of specimens were discovered. And while some of them have been studied here and there, most of them have just sat in storage in the state collections of UT Austin for the past 80 years. But then along came Steven May, a research associate at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences, who decided to dig in, so to speak, and see what was there. While certain groupings had been researched before, he decided to look at the fauna as a whole. He studied and identified a collection of fossils that came from dig sites near Beeville, Texas. Amazingly, he has found that the area was a veritable "Texas Serengeti" including elephant-like animals, rhinos, alligators, antelopes, camels, 12 types of horses and several species of carnivores. An artist's interpretation of ancient North American fauna based on the UT research. (Jay Matternes/ The Smithsonian Institution) In total, the fossil trove contains nearly 4,000 specimens representing 50 animal species, all of which roamed the Texas Gulf Coast 11 million to 12 million years ago, explains UT in statement. "It's the most representative collection of life from this time period of Earth history along the Texas Coastal Plain," says May. Not only are the fossils important for the breadth of fauna they are revealing, but they also include some fossil firsts, explains UT, like a new genus of gomphothere, an extinct relative of elephants with a shovel-like lower jaw, and the oldest fossils of the American alligator and an extinct relative of modern dogs. The skull of a shovel-jawed gomphothere (bottom) collected by WPA fossil hunters is still wrapped in its field jacket. (The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences) Given that the collection is so extensive, there is still a wealth of specimens secured in their original plaster field jackets, waiting to be prepared for future research. Lab managers Deborah Wagner and Kenneth Bader are overseeing their preparation. Wagner points out that the benefits of unpacking the fossils all these decades later is that they now have the modern technology to research the specimens in ways which would have been impossible before. "We are able to preserve more detailed anatomy and answer questions that require higher resolution data," she said. As for May, he says that he plans to continue to study the collection as additional fossils are prepared. More mysteries of the Texas Serengeti wait to be revealed ... and the hard work of legions of out-of-work Texans is finally getting its due. May's paper describing the fossils, their collection history and geologic setting can be found in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica. editorial@tribune.com New Delhi, April 10 Ford Motor Co is nearing a deal with Mahindra & Mahindra to form a new joint-venture company in India, a move that will likely see the US automaker cease independent operations in the country, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks said. The deal would make Ford the latest automaker to pare back its interests in India. At the end of 2017, General Motors Co downsized its Indian operations and stopped selling cars locally, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modis strategy to encourage domestic manufacturing. Over two decades, Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford invested more than $2 billion in India but has consistently struggled - it currently has a market share of just 3 percent in India, one of the worlds fastest-growing car markets. Under the terms of the deal being negotiated, Ford will form a new unit in India in which it will hold a 49% stake, while Mahindra will own 51%, the two sources said. The US carmakers Indian unit will transfer most of its current automotive business to the new entity, including its assets and employees, according to one of the sources. Its like a partial exit (for Ford from India), the source said. The deal is expected to close within 90 days, the sources said, adding the value of the transaction was not yet clear. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Reuters Partial exit Under the terms of the deal being negotiated, Ford will form a new unit in India in which it will hold a 49% stake, while Mahindra will own 51% At the end of 2017, General Motors downsized its Indian operations and stopped selling cars locally, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modis strategy to encourage domestic manufacturing Over two decades, Michigan-based Ford invested more than $2 billion in India but has consistently struggled . editorial@tribune.com Akash Ghai & Kaveesha Kohli Tribune News Service Mohali, April 10 In a big leap after getting the international airport tag four years ago, the airport became operational 24x7 from today. This led to an increase in the number of flights from 27 to 34 at the airport today. Deepesh Joshi, a spokesperson for the airport, said the number of flights would touch the 50 mark within two months. He said the first flight arrived at 6.30 am today, while the arrival timing of the last flight was 8.30 pm. Earlier, the flight operations were between 7.30 am and 6.30 pm. Today, the first flight from Delhi arrived here at 6.30 am, while the last flight arrived from Delhi at 8.30 pm, said Joshi. From April 30, the last flight will start coming from Bengaluru at 11.35 pm. Now onwards, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) would remain functional 24x7, said Joshi. Earlier, the ATC timings were from 5 am to 7 pm. The 24X7 operations are expected to bring more international flights to the airport. Now, late night flight operations are possible here and we are hoping for some more international flights, said Joshi. At present, the airport has flights to just two international destinations Dubai and Sharjah. By September or October this year, the airport is set to get the CAT ILS-III system. This will enable flights to land safely even in case of low visibility. At present, the visibility requirement is around 1,200 m, but once the system is put in place, it will only be 350 m. Soon, the airport, which was set up in 1961, will also be able to facilitate wide-bodied aircraft, including Boeing 777, Boeing 787-800 (Dreamliner), B747-400 and Airbus 330. The new airport premises, which got the international status, was inaugurated on September 11, 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With round-the-clock operations, the airport authorities expect a 30 per cent growth in domestic passengers from the current figure of 22 lakh per annum to nearly 28 lakh. Round-the-clock ops a big leap: bizmen Elated over the start of round-the-clock flight operations, local industrialists termed it a big leap. Yogesh Sagar, president of the Mohali Industries Association, said the 24X7 facility would attract international business companies to set up their corporate or regional headquarters, which would boost the industry. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 10 While the Chandigarh BJP is yet to announce its candidate for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, the Congress today got a shot in the arm when former Mayor and three-time councillor from Mani Majra Gurcharan Dass Kala returned to the Congress fold. His ghar wapsi with his supporters took place in the presence of Congress candidate and former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal at Congress Bhawan in Sector 35. Welcoming Kala, who has been active in Mani Majra, the most populated area of Chandigarh, Bansal said Kala was a simple and popular leader, whose administrative acumen was well-known. His return to the party fold would give immense strength to the party and his electoral campaign, he said. Bansal announced that a public meeting would be held by the Congress in Kalas bastion of Mani Majra on April 19. He said following Kalas return, many other senior BJP leaders were also planning to move over to the Congress. City Congress chief Pradeep Chhabra garlanded Kala while welcoming him into the Congress and asked the gathering to approach five families each in their area with the party message and ensure a thumping win for it in the Lok Sabha elections. Kala has been a close associate of AAP candidate Harmohan Dhawan, who had inducted him into the BJP after moving over to the saffron party. Kala opted to return to the Congress, which, he said, was inspired by the policies of party national president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi. Mukesh Bassi, Devinder Singh and several other senior leaders of the party were present. editorial@tribune.com Dr H K Lall OMG! I was living to read this middle by Beant Singh Bedi (Socio-cultural worth of Urdu) published on April 4. I am at a loss of words to express my gratitude to Mr Bedi who prompted me to write this. I am a 1937 born, at Pakpattan in West Pakistan. My mother tongue is Punjabi. I am deeply in love with Urdu. It is not only a language but a Tehzeeb. It has Sheerani (sweetness), Nafasat (fineness), Nzakat (delicacy). We have a department of language in Punjab at Patiala, which gives free Urdu education of middle standard at every district headquarters and Chandigarh. It is free of cost. Two sessions of six months are run every year. I have the proud privilege of doing the job of teaching Urdu since 1976. Urdu is being taught only in 12 districts because required teachers are not available for all districts. I am not a poet but can recite Urdu couplets, Khidmatey Urdu karunga umr bhar, Ye meri pooja mera eeman hai I hold a doctoral degree in the faculty of languages (Urdu in my case of course) from PU. In my resume, I have mentioned that I have dedicated my life for the propagation of Urdu language. I took up this teaching assignment not as a profession but passion for the language. With the passage of time, it became a mission and it is now an obsession. I want this language to reach every nook and corner of the world. I further say that I do not wish for people to learn more Urdu but for more people to learn Urdu. When I started teaching, the honorarium for this class used to be Rs 100 per month. I would not miss the class for even a single day and sometimes I would not even visit my hometown to see my parents. My father once wrote to me if I have sold myself for Rs 100 per month. I replied that not for Rs 100, but for Urdu. His reply was, I am proud of you, and wrote Shabaash. In his last days, he was brought to the PGI for treatment. My brother had also come from Jalandhar. One evening my father looked at his wrist watch and saw that it was 5 pm. He beckoned my brother and asked him to send me to the Urdu class. When I made an excuse, he shocked me and said that this is an order. With tears in my eyes, I left for the class. Ajai Sahni Ajai Sahni Executive director, institute for conflict management When the decision on the construction of the Kartarpur corridor was announced in November 2018, despite the fantastical rhetoric on both sides, it was clear that, in New Delhi, this was the result of a short-term electoral calculus by the regime to corner the conservative Sikh vote; while in Islamabad, it was a renewed opportunity to create mischief. It was obvious that there are no rational grounds, no dramatic shift in the security situation or the support of Pakistans state agencies to terrorist formations targeting India, no conducive atmosphere, which could justify the abrupt fast forwarding of this project. Moreover, this initiative represents an opportunity for further mischief, a continuation of its (Pakistans) project to keep the Khalistani movement alive and use Sikh shrines and pilgrimages as opportunities for radicalisation and recruitment. These misgivings have been more than borne out in the months since. On the day Indias Cabinet approved the project on November 23, Pakistan gave permission to the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a marginal Khalistani diaspora group operating out of Florida, to open its office in Lahore. The SFJ is spearheading the Khalistani referendum 2020 campaign. In August, the SFJ had organised a demonstration at Trafalgar Square, London, to mobilise support for the referendum on Guru Nanaks birth anniversary in 2020. The event, funded by the ISI, included promises of free passage and a four-day stay in London to all comers from across the world, and particularly targeted Pakistanis. It turned out to be a damp squib, attracting no more than a few score of supporters. The same saga was repeated in several locations, including Canada and the US, with comparably indifferent results. With the support and resources they are receiving from the ISI, and the freedom of operation from its Lahore office, the SFJ leadership declared on November 28 that the Kartarpur corridor is a bridge to Khalistan and announced their intention to organise the Kartarpur Sahib Convention-2019 in support of the referendum agenda. At the convention, they would sponsor and host 10,000 Sikhs from Punjab, open voter registration for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visiting the shrine on the occasion of the Gurus birth anniversary in November 2019, and hold study circles to educate and train participants for the referendum process. It takes little intelligence to guess that the plans, logistics and resources for this ambitious mobilisation can only emanate from the ISI. Nevertheless, this manifest mischief did not deter New Delhi from agreeing to the first technical level discussion in March at Attari, amidst heightened tensions in the wake of the Pulwama attack, and the subsequent Balakot air skirmish. The outcome of this meeting, however, was described as farcical and mere tokenism by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, which also noted, There is a sea of difference between what Pakistan had announced and what they offered at Attari. A second meeting was scheduled for April 2, but was cancelled in view of a range of differences, but most prominently, the announcement by Pakistan, just three days before the meeting, of a 10-member Kartarpur corridor committee which included at least five Khalistani extremists identified as Gopal Singh Chawla, Maninder Singh, Tara Singh, Bisan Singh, and Kuljit Singh. Chawla is believed to have links with the head of the LeT/Jamaat-ud-Dawa terrorist complex, Hafiz Saeed. India sought a clarification on the inclusion of these elements. Significantly, while New Delhi has apparently received no response to the clarification, it has agreed to go ahead with the April 16 meeting. The Khalistani movement and terrorism in Punjab have never been abandoned by Pakistan, though it may have receded from public attention in India and have seen only occasional manifestation in significant acts of violence. It is clear that India has lost the plot in its reckless gambit on the corridor, even as Pakistans sustained strategic intent is in evidence. Against the backdrop of rising tensions, the incessant exchange of fire along the International Border and LoC, Rawalpindis relentless support to Islamist terrorism, and support to every hue of the failed Khalistani leadership, it is absurd to expect that this initiative can be sustained in good faith, that it will create opportunities for devotees to visit the shrine without determined efforts at radicalisation and extremist recruitment, and that it will truly contribute to any improvement in ties between the two countries, or greater understanding between their people. To have any such expectations reflects a disjunction with reality, even as India prepares to spend hundreds of crores to construct 14,460 new bunkers in border villages in J&K to protect people from indiscriminate shelling; as continuous and escalating terrorist violence afflicts J&K, and as acts of military adventurism by both sides leak into air and naval theatres. In all this, India remains overwhelmingly a reactive target of a sustained Pakistani strategy. At no stage has New Delhi been able to wrest the initiative. Even in the context of the mobilisation for Referendum 2020, the principal reliance is on the failure of the programmes advocates to secure significant traction in the Sikh community, rather than any forward-looking strategy to neutralise Khalistani influence, particularly in the diaspora. Nor is there any visible line of attack to disrupt the networks of Khalistani leaderships in their havens, beyond some little diplomatic noise after each of the occasional incidents of terrorist violence in Punjab that are traced back to them. This absence of strategy is a recipe for failure, and will keep the spectre of Khalistani terrorism alive in perpetuity, despite its present and relative quiescence. Bhartendu Kumar Singh Bhartendu Kumar Singh Indian Defence Accounts Service AFTER the Balakot airstrike, strategic thinkers and the social-political elite are resurrecting national security consciousness. Social media warriors have jumped on the bandwagon and taken the lead in exploiting their public outreach. However, the dominant arguments revolve around the Balakot milestone. While some want everybody to follow the flag, others lack vision beyond their established anathema to an outright military option. In the process, both schools miss out the long-term war philosophy required to secure Indias periphery and enable its focus on developmental goals in a cost-effective manner. Balakot may symbolise Indias baby steps beyond a defensive grand strategy where war could be a preferred response to similar provocations in future. But the public discourse on war is still problematic. We are coy of talking about all options on a State like Pakistan: are we happy with teaching a lesson to Pakistan? Since Pakistan has not stopped its proxy-war strategy, do we aim at further damaging its capabilities? Or do we fantasise total annihilation of Pakistan or at least fuel internal resistance from its marginalised provinces like Sindh or Balochistan? At a generic level, we dont want to discuss why modern wars are difficult to wage and win. Cost-benefit analyses is seldom done and war preparations are not being discussed in public (perhaps out of ignorance). Concurrently, alternative options like limited war, coercive exercises, diplomacy, politics of exclusion etc are not sufficiently being discussed. War by other means strategy is dominated by war by other memessinglehandedly channelled by social media. What we often have, therefore, is the propagation of false narratives masquerading as desired strategic response. There could be many reasons why such narratives often have an upper hand in the polarised debates. First, we are living in the immediate aftermath of a short, successful and jubilant military experience with a belligerent neighbour. Nobody had expected this kind of assertive response after the Pulwama tragedy. The overall environment is still euphoric and militarised. Warmongering, thus, emerges as an artificial social, psychological and political construct and a minor academic industry, courtesy social media. Second, the protagonists of such narratives also believe that military power is the power in international relations and do not accord adequate respect to other aspects of power that can be of equal importance in containing a wild neighbour. There is also an inbuilt confidence of India being a military power in every sense capable of waging and winning a war. The near absence of decisive wars in contemporary international relations (like the US failed invasion of Vietnam in the 1960s) or the very decline of wars are not factored in moderating the pro-war philosophy. Third, war language often gets flared up due to revenge politics, power politics, and social media advertisements. In this environment, we remain bogged down within the narrow and militaristic perceptions of national security, perhaps basking (without confirming) in the assumptions about our superior capabilities. People fall prey, rather easily, to such narratives and opinion-building exercises. There has been a steady move in global politics towards non-violent and diplomatic means of dispute resolution. Wars, though, sometimes become inevitable and the morally preferred option. However, we need a right philosophy of war since every war has a cost in terms of losses of human lives, national assets etc and disruption in national priorities. The aftershocks of even successful wars are felt for decades. Considerations of war must always be studied and gauged through the economic, strategic and ethical prism so that an implementable and effective war strategy is agreed upon for feeding public policy mechanisms. At the end of the day, we need to strive towards what is the best for our national collectivity: good quality of life. Further, As Michael Walzer, a celebrated war philosopher, says, We are not usually philosophical in moments of crisis; most often, there is no time. The time has come since the Balakot momentum is settling down and a comprehensive strategy can be worked out without getting too emotional and vengeful. India, at least in the foreseeable future, needs a grand strategy for mobilisation of resources for meeting the twin threats from China and Pakistan on the one hand and internal security threats on the other. It also needs to balance defence and development through judicious usage of resources and channelise developmental aspects of security. Can the war talks visible against Pakistan resolve our security dilemma against a bigger neighbour like China? Do we have that preponderance of resources? We, therefore, need to debate a war philosophy that caters to all kind of external threats in a cost-effective manner. India has the advantage of social and political arrangements on democratic lines. Enough literature has emerged in recent times hypothesising that democracies prefer peace over war options. If faced with a war scenario, democracies also tend to fight with better initiative and superior leadership. India may not have an established culture of national security like other great powers. The preference should be to make the best use of democratic space and debate a rational and comprehensive culture of national security that is socially and philosophically acceptable. Balakot has provided us a decisive moment and an opportunity. Instead of frittering away our energies in polarised debates, we should make use of these in engendering right norms, identities and culture of national security. Views are personal sanjiv@tribunemail.com The ugly head of the sand mafia has risen again in Haryana with the detection of illegal 50-feet-deep digging along the Yamuna embankment at Tajewala village in Yamunanagar. It threatens to wreak havoc in the coming monsoon as the damaged embankment may impact the Hathnikund barrage and lead to floods in the surrounding area. As truckloads of the mineral dredged by heavy machinery criss-cross the state with impunity, it is an open secret that the unlawful activity is rampant. Alarmed by the ravaging plunder, the NGT had put a blanket ban on sand mining on the banks of the Yamuna in 2015, pending an investigation. In 2012, the Supreme Court had in a bid to curb illegal mining that is prevalent across the country, notably banned all sand mining without the approval of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. But the upper hand of the strong sand mafia-politician-landowner nexus prevailed as the state governments failed to rein in unsanctioned quarrying of sand, fed by the booming construction business. A glaring example of the influence of the mining mafia and realtors was seen in February this year when the Haryana Government, despite protests by the Opposition, amended the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900, ostensibly to pave the way for development activities in the ecologically sensitive Aravalli areas. This collusion was to primarily favour the upscale Kant Enclave locality in Faridabad. Thankfully, the apex court intervened and delivered a deadly blow to the unholy intentions. It ordered the demolition of the buildings in the enclave. On Monday, it even rejected pleas of residents to shift the eviction deadline. Only such strong action as a ban on illicit dredging activity can restrict quarrying in the Yamuna basin, hundreds of acres of which have been plundered and its rich ecosystem irreversibly impacted. Tardy probes and low conviction rates ensure that the money-minting indiscriminate extraction of sand continues. The data of Mohali just one held guilty in 165 cases of unauthorised sand mining in four years is reflective of the countrywide situation. GPS-enabled monitoring could help curb the criminal menace that leaves our children with an unlivable habitat. sanjiv@tribunemail.com Acouple of days before the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, two incidents of violence have turned the spotlight on the security preparedness. A BJP MLA and four security personnel were killed in a Naxal attack in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, while an RSS leader and his personal security officer were gunned down in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. Dantewada falls in Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, which goes to the polls on Thursday. Going by the Naxals track record, the incident is another attempt to disrupt the poll process. Four BSF personnel were killed and two others injured in an encounter with Naxals in Kanker district last week. Before the Assembly polls in November last year, a CISF jawan and three civilians had lost their lives when an IED planted by Naxalites had ripped through a bus in Dantewada. Back in 2013, in the run-up to the Assembly elections, 27 persons, including senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma and former Union Minister VC Shukla, were killed in an ambush in Bastar. As per the Chhattisgarh police, the MLA ignored an advisory about avoiding a particular route. However, this contention does not absolve the security agencies of responsibility. Whats worse, the killing is being given a political colour, even though Naxals have been a headache for successive governments in the state. Amid the blame game, the Election Commission (EC) has rightly decided to go ahead with polling as per schedule. Kishtwar, which had been declared terrorism-free over a decade ago, had witnessed the killing of BJP state secretary Anil Parihar and his brother Ajeet Parihar in November last year. In the light of recent reports that Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists are active in the area, the RSS leaders murder apparently has a terror/communal angle. Kishtwar is part of the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, which will go to the polls on April 18. Any security lapse that leads to bloodshed should not go unpunished. The EC can do its job effectively only if law and order prevails. editorial@tribune.com Nitish Sharma Tribune News Service Ambala, April 10 The Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (HSCPCR) will initiate action against private schools if discriminatory attitude was adopted towards students from economically weaker section (EWS) who get admissions under Rule 134 A. Pratibha Singh, HSCPCR member, told The Tribune, There have been complaints regarding private schools discriminating against students who get admission under Rule 134 A. Some parents have informed us that their children were facing discrimination in schools. They are not encouraged like other children, are made to sit separately and also denied transportation facility in some cases. Parents have not given their complaints in writing as they have apprehensions that their children may face more problems if school authorities come to know about the complaints. It has been decided that letters will be issued to the district education officers across the state, asking them to ensure that all children were treated equally. The HSCPCR will initiate action against private schools if any complaint of discrimination was received, she said. Another issue has come to our notice that booksellers are forcing students to purchase complete sets of books. If a student has purchased an old set and requires an additional book prescribed by the school, then sellers are forcing him to purchase the complete set. The matter will be raised with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, she said. On the other hand, Kulbhushan Sharma, president, National Independent Schools Alliance, said, Schools dont discriminate. The HSCPCR must ask the government to release the fees for the students studying under Rule 134 A and also give education vouchers to them, so that students could select the schools of their choice. The HSCPCR must also verify income certificates and ensure that only the deserving candidates get the benefits of Rule 134 A. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 10 Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala has said the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) will never forge an alliance with the Congress, as his great grandfather Chaudhary Devi Lal had always fought against it. Our fight has been against Congress policies, our ideology also does not go with them, he told the media here on Wednesday. On an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he said a three-member committee of the party had submitted its report to his father (Ajay Singh Chautala). My father will take a final call on the matter. The party will declare candidates in three days. The JJP can have a multi-party alliance with like-minded outfits, the MP said. He criticised the BJP over seeking votes in the name of soldiers killed in terrorist attacks. In 14 days, 53 jawans of the Army and paramilitary forces died, but the BJP has been exploiting their sacrifice politically. He denied former Karnal MP Arvind Sharma, who recently joined the BJP, was in touch with him. On BJPs sankalp patra, he said that as unemployment had risen, the party didnt mention anything about jobs in 75 promises it had made in the manifesto. AAP-JJP alliance likely Rohtak: The AAP and JJP are set to join hands and announce the tie-up during the Navratras. Sources said talks were in the final stages and a formal announcement was expected in a day or two. No leader of either party came on record regarding the matter. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Dharamsala, April 10 Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur along with former CM and veteran BJP leader Shanta Kumar today campaigned in Sullah and Nagrota Bagwan assembly constituencies of Kangra district today. The Chief Minister sought votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that it was for the first time that India has reacted strongly to Pak-sponsored terrorism from across the borders. There was a wave in favour of the Prime Minister in the entire country, especially Himachal Pradesh. Kangra is a land of soldiers and the soldiers and ex-servicemen have appreciated the steps taken by the Prime Minister for quelling terrorism being promoted from cross the border. The Chief Minister also said that it was Narendra Modi who fulfilled the longstanding demand of one rank, one pension for soldiers. Modi loves Himachal and he calls the state his second home. In the last one year the state government has received a financial grant of Rs 10,500 crore from the Union Government led by Modi. The Chief Minister said that in the last one year he has visited all the 68 Assembly constituencies of the state. I am the first CM to do so. Now I am well conversed with the problems of various areas of the state and have established direct contact with the people at the ground level. In the next few months the schemes of the state government would start taking ground and benefits would start reaching people, he said. Shanta Kumar said that power minister Anil Sharma has no option but to resign as minister and an MLA as he cannot continue to float on two boats to save his membership of the House. Kishan Kapoor said that it was only during the stints of the NDA government that Himachal had got special treatment from the union government. The previous Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had given an industrial package to the state after which investment worth thousands of crores flew into the state. It was UPA-II government that terminated the industrial package to the state, he said. However, the Prime Minister has given special category status to Himachal under which for all development projects the union government would contribute 90 per cent of the project cost while the state government would have to pitch in with just 10 per cent. Minister for Health Vipin Parmar said that the union government had launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna that would cover about 50 crore people in the country and provided health insurance cover up to Rs 5 lakh. editorial@tribune.com Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service Jalandhar, April 10 It was a year ago that Justine migrated to India from Nigeria, looking for a better life. He just escaped from his strife-torn country. A man whom he met during some protests in Nigeria has become the reason behind him landing in jail in Punjab. On his second errand to smuggle heroin in the state, Justine was arrested by the Jalandhar rural police this morning. Justine is the 17th foreign national (nine of them women) arrested by the Jalandhar police in the past nine months with seizures of as many as 27 kg of contraband. Besides foreign nationals, mostly Africans, contraband is also being caught from J&K citizens. Every other day, the name of Nigerian nationals surfaces in the drug nexus which clearly continues to thrive amid the elections even as the code of conduct is in place and in the second year of the Congress government in the state which had promised to wipe out drugs in the first one month of its forming the government. With a bandana wrapped around half his face to hide his identity as is customary with suspects arrested in similar cases Justine while speaking to The Tribune, after a press conference held to announce the heroin haul caught from him, says: This was my second errand to smuggle heroin. I had previously smuggled a smaller heroin packet. A fellow Nigerian, Peter, helped me when I migrated to India a year ago. I had met him during some protests in that country. When I came to India and needed help, he spotted me and helped me, giving me food when I was hungry. In return, he began asking me to smuggle some packets, which he put in my bag. Justine claims he did not know what was being put in his bag. At present, a resident of Dwarka, New Delhi, he was caught at a naka in Adampur this morning with 1 kg of heroin. Among other Nigerians caught by the police, in the majority of the cases, the suspects were coming from Delhi. The rural police have also intimated the Delhi Police about many of these cases and the police said talks were on for formation of inter-state teams to check the steadily rising recovery of drugs stashes, most of which come from Delhi-based foreign-immigrant peddlers. However, even as drugs pour into the state, the police are yet clueless on the supply chain. SSP (rural), Jalandhar, Navjot Singh Mahal, said: Much of the drugs come in from the sea route. We do not know the specific source yet but the Golden Triangle is largely to blame. We are in talks with the Delhi Police and will also be seeking the help of the STF to dig into elements behind the supply of drugs in the region. The SSP said Justine was arrested during checks at an Adampur naka today. The police spotted a foreigner who was carrying a backpack. He said on suspicion, the police personnel stopped him and frisked him following which one kg of heroin was caught from him. A case under Sections 21, 61 and 85 of NDPS Act has been registered against Justine. The police said he would be sent to remand for further questioning regarding the source. As stated earlier, Justine said he had been given the contraband by another Nigerian national, Peter. the SSP said in nine months, the police had seized 27 kg of heroin and arrested 17 foreigners, including nine women. editorial@tribune.com Amir Tantray & Amit Khajuria Tribune News Service Jammu, April 10 Two major border Lok Sabha constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir Baramulla and Jammu will go to polls on Thursday amid concerns of security and voting percentage. Baramulla is witnessing a three-cornered contest among the National Conference, Peoples Conference and the PDP while Jammu will see a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP. Over 33 lakh voters will determine the fate of 33 contestants. Both constituencies share their border with Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and some of the areas in the south of Pir Panjal have been the target of the Pakistani army shelling, in which both soldiers, civilians have lost their lives. The twin constituencies have 33,65037 registered voters, including 17,16,933 males, 16,00,897 females, 47,155 service voters (46,652 males and 503 females) and 52 transgenders, for whom the Election Commission has set up 4,489 polling stations. Twentyfour candidates are in the fray from the Jammu parliamentary constituency and nine from the Baramulla constituency. The Jammu seat is spread over 20 Assembly segments of four districts, including Jammu, Samba, Poonch and Rajouri, with 20,47,299 voters. The authorities have set up 2,740 polling stations across this constituency. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently addressed a rally here. Meanwhile, the Baramulla constituency is spread over across 15 Assembly segments of three districts of north Kashmir, including Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora. It has 13,17,738 voters, for whom the Election Commission of India has established 1,749 polling stations. The voting hours have been fixed from 7 am to 6 pm. On poll eve, border dwellers ecstatic Treva village (IB): Undeterred by Pakistani shelling, border dwellers of the Arnia sector of Jammu district are ecstatic to exercise their right to franchise on Thursday. The Arnia sector is part of the Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha constituency, which is going to the polls on Thursday. All 10 panchayats in the sector are situated on the International Border (IB) comprising over 30,000 voters a deciding factor on this seat. Ex-sarpanch, Changia panchayat, Raghuvir Singh said: Not only villagers are going to vote, but a large number of border dwellers who work in towns and outside the state have also returned home to cast vote. TNS Shutdown call The joint resistance leadership (JRL) has urged people to observe a shutdown across the Valley on Thursday to protest the Lok Sabha elections. In a statement, the JRL said in the subsequent phases, the shutdown should be restricted to the constituencies where the poll is held. editorial@tribune.com Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, April 10 The stage is all set for the first phase of parliamentary polls in Baramulla constituency in north Kashmir, where over 32,000 additional security men have been deployed to ensure peaceful voting on Thursday. For the first time in the last 23 years, Kashmiri separatists, who are facing a major crackdown, have not carried out any visible anti-election campaign in Kashmir. The Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency, spread over 15 Assembly segments in three border districts of Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora, will see a tough contest between four players National Conferences Akbar Lone, Peoples Conferences Raja Aijaz Ali, Peoples Democratic Partys Qayoom Wani and Awami Ittehad Party leader Abdul Rashid Sheikh, alias Engineer Rasheed. While NCs Akbar Lone, a three-time MLA from Sonwari, will be banking on traditional votes, PDPs Qayoom Wani, a former trade union leader contesting for the first time, hopes that the teaching community will come out to vote for him. Cop-turned-politician Raja Aijaz Ali has projected his party as an alternative to the NC and the PDP. Firebrand leader and former independent MLA Rasheed too has been able to attract large crowds. With IAS officer-turned-politician Shah Faesal and former minister Ghulam Hassan Mir coming in support of Rasheed, he is also a strong contender. The high decibel poll campaign has been marred by controversies with NCs Akbar Lone leading the chorus by raising Pakistan zindabad slogans during an rally. The Peoples Conference focused on development for Kupwara, promising a tunnel to the landlocked border region of Karnah. The party also targeted the NC more than the PDP. The PDP on the other hand highlighted the need to safeguard the special constitutional position of J&K, promising to ensure that these laws stay. The party was back to its soft separatist politics and targeted its former alliance partner BJP. Though overall security in north Kashmir is better than south Kashmir districts, the authorities are not taking any chance. As many as 400 additional companies (over 32,000 men) of paramilitary and J&K armed police have been deployed in the three border districts going to polls. These will be apart from the normal force strength in the districts. Rasheed a crowd-puller Srinagar: When Awami Ittehad Party president Engineer Rasheed announced that he would contest the elections from the Baramulla constituency, poll pundits did not take him seriously, saying the former Independent MLA would at the most eat into the vote share of the candidate of Sajad Lones party Peoples Conference. However, as the campaigning picked up, the enthusiasm and rush at Rasheeds rallies surprised onlookers, making him a force to reckon with especially after receiving support from bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal and former minister Ghulam Hassan Mir, who heads the Democratic Party Nationalist. TNS editorial@tribune.com Arun Joshi Tribune News Service Jammu, April 10 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans hope that the BJPs victory in elections would be better for settlement of the Kashmir issue is an acknowledgement of the reality, though it seeks to defang the current ultranationalist and anti-Pakistan campaign of the saffron party. Imran has forwarded a quirky piece of politics and diplomacy of single-lens view of the roadmap that he has unfolded to the international media. For a premier who has the backing of the Pakistan army and whose approach was cool-headed after the Pulwama terror attack, the use of such political semantics is to further brush up his image at the international level. He, yet again, has laid the ground for a conciliatory approach hiding the reality of the terrorism flourishing on its soil to gain credibility as a peace-maker. Imran told foreign journalists, If the next Indian government were led by the opposition Congress, it might be too scared to seek a settlement with Pakistan over Kashmir, fearing a backlash from the right. If the BJP wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached, he said. Not many shared Imrans hope, but perhaps he was recalling that how PMNarendra Modi had done something unprecedented by inviting the then Pak PM Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony in May 2014 and then landed in Lahore in December 2015. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was among the first to voice her skepticism and caution Imran, when she said that her late father Mufti Mohammad too like the Pakistan PM believed that Modi could carry forward process of dialogue initiated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Modi despite a huge mandate frittered away that chance. The BJP has made Kashmir central to its 2019 campaign on two issues first, it is being showcased as an example of its zero-tolerance to terrorism, with the Modi government having given a free hand to the security forces to launch strong anti-militancy operations and also the stern action that it claims it has taken against Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir. Second, of course, the BJP campaign is ruthlessly critical of the special position of Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370, and special rights and privileges to the permanent residents of the state. It has simplified the campaign for the better understanding of common people by asking them, whether they wanted two Prime Ministers in the country? NC vice-president Omar Abdullah has been quite vocal on this demand. The BJP is trying to sell that Kashmir-centric parties were promoting secession of the state by raising such demands. A critical fact is that the indigenousness of the militancy is more visible on the canvas than any time before with the local recruitment and overall alienation crossing many dark milestones, the role of Pakistan in the whole mischief making and inciting the religious sentiments is no less. Imran presented less than a half picture as well about Kashmir. His claim that his government is taking action against terrorists runs in contradiction to the existence of the terror training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and justification of the violence in this part of Kashmir as legitimate activity of freedom fighters is like drawing a one-sided roadmap. editorial@tribune.com Suhail A Shah Anantnag, April 10 Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said the Congress had always been afraid of taking steps vis-a-vis the Kashmir issue and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost a golden chance by not acting in this regard despite a decisive mandate. She was responding to a question regarding Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans recent statement wherein he had maintained chance of peace talks was better, if the BJP wins the poll. Talking to reporters following a workers convention here, she said, We have seen how Manmohan Singh-led Congress could not take forward the good work done by Atal Bihari Vajpayee even in their 10 years in the office, Mehbooba said, adding that Manmohan did not even visit Pakistan. She said the Congress was too afraid to take steps to settle the Kashmir issue. The PDP president said Imran was reiterating only what her late father had said time and again. My father said time and again that Modi had everything on his side. He had the mandate and the right kind of support to talk to Pakistan, she said. She, however, maintained that Modi did not justify his mandate vis-a-vis the Kashmir issue and relations with neighbouring Pakistan. He could have done so much but he did not. Now, I dont think he will get the kind of mandate he had till now even if he comes back to power for a second term, Mehbooba said. Mehbooba was also asked about the ban on civilian vehicle movement on the National Highway No. 44, twice a week. She said she had protested against it and had moved the court. Now the only option is that the people should come to the highway with their vehicles and I will accompany them if they do so, Mehbooba said. Farooq praises Imran, hits out at PM Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday praised Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan but criticised Narendra Modi for speaking the language of a tea-seller. Farooq, who is the NC candidate for the Srinagar seat, appreciated Imran for his recent statement of casting off war as an option between India and Pakistan. Peace words are coming from the Prime Minister of our neighbouring country, a former cricketer. However on this side, our PM is still speaking the language of a tea-seller, Farooq said at a rally in the city. He said dialogue between India and Pakistan was the only way to resolve the Kashmir issue. TNS editorial@tribune.com Amir Karim Tantray & Ranjit Thakur Tribune reporters Jammu/Doda, April 10 Violence broke out in Kishtwar town as RSS leader Chander Kant Sharma, who along with his PSO was yesterday shot by two unidentified assailants at a district hospital, was cremated here today. As thousands of mourners took part in the funeral procession, an angry mob pelted stones on the SSP office, a police station and Dak Bungalow buildings. Three cops were injured. Police fired teargas shells to quell protest but people staged a dharna at the towns Kuleed Chowk till the evening, said a police officer. Cremation passed off peacefully but a mob targeted government buildings in the town, said Kishtwar DC Angrez Singh Rana. Meanwhile, the curfew remained imposed for the second day in Kishtwar and Bhaderwah towns. Sources said the SIT had started recording eyewitness accounts. The SIT is gathering available evidence, including CCTV footage of the area, said a source. The assailants apparently did a recce of the possible exit routes. The attackers seem to have used a collapsed wall behind the hospital to flee, the source added. Meanwhile, PSO Rajinder Kumar was cremated at his native Mughal Madian area of Kishtwar. Lal Singh detained Jammu: Although top BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders were allowed to attend the cremation of RSS activist Chander Kant Sharma, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan chief Choudhary Lal Singh was debarred from attending the last rites on Wednesday. Lal Singh was detained by the police in Doda on Wednesday morning while he was on the way to Kishtwar to attend cremation of Chander Kant. The police said he was detained as a preventive measure as the leader was defying the restrictions imposed under Section 144 of the CrPC and obstructing the smooth plying of vehicles on the national highway. Lal Singh blamed his detention on the BJP with the help of the state administration. Three policemen injured As thousands of mourners took part in the funeral procession, an angry mob pelted stones on the SSP office, a police station and Dak Bungalow buildings. Three policemen were injured in the clash. shalender@tribune.com On the beach Katrina Kaif Katrina crossed 20 million followers on Instagram recently and hence the super-hot actress shared happiness with her followers by posting bikini pictures and videos from Maldives. We cant get over how stunning the actress looks as she is seen having a gala time on the beach. Get glowing Malaika Arora Malaika Arora was recently chilling with her friends in Maldives and she kept her followers entertained by sharing pictures on Instagram. In her latest picture, she is seen in a colourful bikini, winking at the camera. This woman is definitely glowing and as she says, come what may, she will always choose happiness. Miss messy Parineeti Chopra Parineeti Chopra looks bold and strong in this red body suit. With braided messy hair, the actress is giving us beach vibes in her latest photoshoot. We already want to go on a beach vacation! Pretty in pink Disha Patani Disha Patani, who is the brand ambassador of a famous clothesline, often seen in swimsuits and bikinis. The picture which took internet by storm just few days back is of Disha dressed in a pink monokini and the actress looks stunning. Green diva Sarah Jane Dias Sarah Jane Dias looks like a goddess in this stylish blue and green bikini. If you go through her Instagram profile, you will be in awe of her posts as the actress is currently on a mini vacation. We are loving her beachy body. Super chic Pooja Hegde A two-piece hot pink bikini with a crochet cover seems like just the perfect style for a beachwear outing with your friends. Take inspiration from Pooja Hegdes look that seems super chic and makes a perfect style statement this summer. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Ludhiana, April 10 The district administration and several NGOs are making efforts to ensure maximum participation of voters in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. A function to motivate persons with disabilities (PwDs) to get registered and to cast their vote in free and fair manner was organised at Ishmeet Singh Music Academy here today. This function was attended by a large number of PwDs. During todays function, International Cyclist Shamli Sharma, who has been appointed as ambassador for Ludhiana district, was honoured by Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal. Shamli Sharma had won a gold medal at Special Olympics held at Doha (Qatar) recently. District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Agrawal said a total of 5,312 PwD voters have been registered in the district. He said for the benefit of these voters, special ballot papers and voter slips would be made. Agrawal said that the district administration has already procured the booth-level data of all PwD voters and volunteers would be deputed to assist them on the polling day. Students of Ishmeet Academy and Jamalpur school presented a cultural show. Raj Bahadur Yadav Raj Bahadur Yadav Ifelt a sense of great pride when I learnt that the people of Pakistan respect our martyr Bhagat Singh as much as we do and have raised the demand to declare him a national martyr. On the 88th martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, they paid rich tributes to them and took out a candle march in their honour at Shadman Chowk it is here that our heroes kissed the gallows in Central Jail on March 23, 1931, shaking the foundation of the British Raj in Lahore. This, despite the tension between the two nations. A petition has been moved in the court to rename Shadman Chowk after Bhagat Singh. In Fatehabad, the same day, citizens paid floral tributes to Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his comrades in the Papiha Public Park. A banner saying Ek shaam, shaheedon ke naam was hanging from the branches of two parallel trees. We were sitting near a thick grove of bakain trees. The leaf-laden branches were moving mirthfully in the mild wind. Tulips, marigold and bougainvillea were in bloom. The entire nature seemed generous and receptive to a modest goshthi being held in Bhagat Singhs memory. All speakers were unanimous in their opinion that his biggest asset as a public figure was his selfless temperament. He didnt have time to think about himself, spending every minute of his life in the motherlands service. He was a voracious reader, having read more than 450 books in his short life span. When he was informed about the time of his hanging, he was reading the biography of Lenin, the most popular leader of the Great October Revolution in Russia in 1917. He had folded the page he could not complete. In his popular book Sansmrityan, Shiv Verma a revolutionary says, I saw Bhagat Singh sometimes in soiled clothes also, but even then, in his pockets, he always carried books. He was capable of thinking, planning and imagining the future of a new India once the struggle for freedom was over. He wished the light of freedom, social justice and equality would reach every hamlet and village of the country. Some youths staged a play on the present lifestyle of our politicians, marked by doublespeak and dichotomy. They leave no stone unturned to trap the gullible masses with their endless false promises to win the elections. They poorly compare with Bhagat Singh and his comrades in theory and practice. At the end of the programme, people raised slogans of Bhagat Singh amar rahen. Darkness had started descending. Birds were returning to the trees with a mild chirp and flutter of their delicate wings, announcing their deep respect for our martyrs who laid down their precious lives for liberating our country from the yoke of British imperialism. We salute them. editorial@tribune.com Manas Dasgupta Ahmedabad, April 10 Giving a jolt to the Congress in Gujarat on the eve of the Phase-I voting, three MLAs, including Alpesh Thakor, today resigned from the party. The leader of the Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena, Alpesh who had joined the Congress on the eve of the 2017Assembly elections, was disappointed with the party as he and Thakors, one of the strong communities among the Other Backward Classes, were not getting their due in the Congress. The core group of the Thakor Sena reportedly met in Mehsana yesterday and directed Alpesh to choose between the Congress or the community within 24 hours. Addressing the media this evening, Alpesh said he and two other Congress MLAs Dhavalsinh Jhala and Bharatji Thakor, all of them from Banaskantha and Patan districts in north Gujarat, had resigned from the party. But none of them would resign from the Assembly as they wanted to continue to serve the people. He said none of them would join the BJP or any other party. The fact that we are not resigning from the Assembly is the proof that we will not join the BJP. If we join any other party, we would be required to quit the Assembly where we were elected on the Congress ticket, he said. He insisted that they would remain the Assembly members as non-attached for the full-term of the House. In a letter to state Congress president Amit Chavda, Alpesh said he was pained to quit from the party but he had no options because he and his supporters in the Thakor Sena had received only insults and betrayal from the Congress. Describing the Congress as the fiefdom of a handful of leaders, the MLA said he had taken up the issues with the top party leadership several times but received mere assurances which were never executed. He blamed the Gujarat AICC incharge Rajiv Satav for the impasse as he failed to sort out any problem confronting them. He also accused the Congress of making business of ticket distribution. Alpesh said he and his supporters would not campaign for any party, except the two Thakor candidates for Banaskantha and Patan seats contesting as Independents. One of the three emerging young faces along with Patidar leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, Alpesh had become hope of the Congress to win over a sizeable chunk of the OBC votes but his exit from the party would be a jolt for the Congress to salvage some of its prestige the party lost by losing all 26 seats to the BJP in 2014. rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, April 11 AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday claimed that genuine anti-BJP votes had been deleted across India at an unprecedented scale and questioned the Election Commission over the fairness of the ongoing polls. His deputy Manish Sisodia accused the EC of serving the BJP. In a series of tweets, Kejriwal tagged the people who claimed that their names or the names of their relatives had been deleted from the voter lists. What is happening EC? Are these elections fair? Kejriwal said in a tweet. Anti-BJP votes deleted all across India. Reports coming from all across India that votes have been deleted on unprecedented scale. Why are all faulty EVM machines seen to be voting always for BJP? he said in a tweet. Polling began on Thursday morning in 91 constituencies spread across 18 states and two union territories in the first phase of the general election. He re-tweeted and shared profiles of a number of people whose names have been deleted. One of them included businesswoman Kiran Mazumdar Shaw who said her mothers name had been deleted. My mothers voter ID has been deleted on some flimsy excuse that there was a report that she no longer lives at her address. She is so upset I cant tell you becos she has been at the same address for 19 years. So much for verification, she said in a tweet. Questioning the EC, Delhis Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the poll body is serving the BJP. Election Commission of India! Please see what you are doing to Voters of India. So many people reporting about illegal deletion of their own votes. Is this the way you want to serve India? This nothing but serving BJP, he said in a tweet. Kejriwal also re-tweeted badminton player Jwala Guttas status where she had shared the profile of a voter who claimed her name was deleted. Reacting to this, Kejriwal said it is absolutely shocking and this has happened all across the country. AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, have already been crying foul over what they termed illegal removal of the names of 30 lakh genuine voters from the rolls in Delhi. PTI pardeepdhull@gmail.com New Delhi, April 11 A green laser light aimed at Congress President Rahul Gandhi during his roadshow in Amethi on Wednesday created a scare, but the Home Ministry said there was no threat to his life. However, sources said that a security breach was alleged when the laser light was seen pointed at the head of Rahul during the roadshow. This led to security concerns within the party, but it was later found that the 'green light' was from a camera. When contacted, a Home Ministry spokesperson said as soon as the ministrys attention was drawn to reports about the incident, the Director (Special Protection Group) was asked to verify the factual position. The Director (SPG) has informed the MHA that they have gone through the video clipping of the incident very closely. The green light shown in the clipping was found to be that of a mobile phone used by the AICC photographer, who was videographing the impromptu press interaction of Rahul Gandhi near the collectorate at Amethi. Director (SPG) has also informed MHA that this position was conveyed to the personal staff of Rahul Gandhi. Director (SPG) has confirmed that there was no security implication whatsoever, the spokesperson said. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala the party has written no letter pertaining to alleged security breach to Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The Home Ministry spokesperson corroborated this saying, The MHA has not received any letter from the Congress Party. PTI monicakchauhan@gmail.com Nagpur, April 11 Heads turned when the world's tiniest woman, actress and Guinness World Record holder Jyoti Amge - who stands just 63 cm tall - turned up to vote at a polling station in Nagpur on Thursday. Sporting a red-and-checks sleeveless dress, the 25-year-old woman at 2 feet, 1 inch, patiently stood in the queue and exercised her franchise. "I request all people to vote. Please vote first and then go to complete all your other works," Amge told the media as she displayed her marked finger. Amge, a celeb cook and entrepreneur, has appeared in Bigg Boss 6, acted in American and Italian television series and has her own statue in the Celebrity Wax Museum, Lonavala (Pune). IANS rchopra@tribunemail.com Islamabad, April 11 A Pakistani high court on Thursday declared that the two Hindu teenage sisters were not forcibly converted from Hinduism to Islam, and permitted them to live with their spouses, according to a media report. The two girls, Raveena (13) and Reena (15), and their spouses petitioned the Islamabad High Court on March 25 against alleged harassment by police days after their father and brother alleged that the girls were underage, abducted, forced into changing their religion, and then married off to Muslim men. In their plea, the girls claimed that they belonged to a Hindu family of Ghotki, Sindh, but converted willfully as they were impressed by Islamic teaching, Dawn reported. The counsel for the girls parents, however, asserted that the case pertained to forced conversion. Chief Justice Athar Minallah constituted a five-member commission to probe whether the conversion of the Hindu sisters to Islam was forced or otherwise. The commission comprising Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, prominent Muslim scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairperson Mehdi Hasan, National Commission on the Status of Women Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz and veteran journalist and human rights activist IA Rehman probed the matter and concluded that it was not a forced conversion, the report said. Interior secretary Azam Suleman apprised the high court of the findings of the commission and told the court that as per the commissions opinion, it was a facilitated conversion, the report said. Rehman pointed out in the court that there is no law in Pakistan against forced conversions and sought a court decree in this regard. Minallah remarked that the case of the Ghotki sisters is a simple one and would have been decided in a day or so, but a commission comprising eminent professionals and scholars was constituted keeping in view the sensitivity of the case since the court wanted to ensure this was not a forced conversion. Regarding the issue of forced conversions, the court sought the commissions recommendations within four weeks and adjourned the case until May 14. The teenage sisters were allegedly abducted by a group of influential men from their home in Ghotki district in Sindh on the eve of Holi. Soon after the abduction, a video went viral in which a cleric was purportedly shown soleminising the marriage of the two girls, triggering a nationwide outrage. Prime Minister Imran Khan also ordered probe to ascertain if the two girls were abducted and forcibly converted and married off. A war of words broke out between Indias External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistans Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry over the reported abduction, forced conversion and underage marriage of the two Hindu teenagers. The spat started soon after Swaraj sought details from the Indian envoy in Pakistan into the reported abduction. Swaraj tweeted that she had asked the Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan to send a report. Hindus form the biggest minority community in Pakistan. According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in Pakistan. Majority of Pakistans Hindu population is settled in Sindh province. According to media reports, approximately 25 forced marriages take place every month in Umerkot district in Sindh province alone. PTI vinaymishra188@gmail.com Islamabad, April 10 Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he believes there may be a better chance of peace talks with India and settling the Kashmir issue if Prime Minister Narendra Modis BJP wins the General Election. On an earlier occasion, he had expressed reservations about talks going ahead if the BJP were to win again. The Pakistan PM said other parties would be afraid of a right-wing backlash in case of settlement on the central issue of Kashmir. The PM said Pakistan was taking action against all militants groups, including the JeM. We have taken the religious schools of these groups under state control. It is the first serious effort to disarm the militant outfits, he said. He said action was taken because it was important for the future of Pakistan. He also rejected the impression that Pakistan was compelled to taken such an action. In New Delhi, the Opposition, often accused by PM Modi of speaking Pakistans language, was quick to get back at the BJP. PTI Kashmir issue has to be settled "Number one task of the two governments is to reduce poverty and that is by settling our differences through dialogue and there is only one difference Kashmir. The issue has to be settled." Imran Khan, Pakistan PM gspannu7@gmail.com Kendukona (Assam), April 11 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday slammed the Congress for indulging in corruption and said a new scam Tughlaq Road Chunav Ghotala by it has come to the fore. In the new scam, crores of rupees meant for nutrition of poor children and expectant mothers has been seized even as old cases of corruption against it are still on, he told a rally here. The naamdari parivar (famed family) is engaged in corruption and has made it a way a life for which its members are now on bail, but they call the chowkidar a chor, he said. There is a Tughlaq Road in Delhi and there is a bungalow there where a big leader lives. During the last few days, a game involving several crores of rupees is being played. Sack loads of currency notes are being recovered from those people who are connected with this bungalow, he said. This is the Tughlaq Road Chunav Ghotala and Congress indulges in corruption to win elections ... If they do not loot, how will they fight elections, he said. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has a bungalow in Tughlaq Road in the national capital and the homes of his former private secretary Praveen Kakkar in Indore and former advisor Rajendra Kumar Miglani in Delhi were raided by income tax officers on April 7 in connection with an alleged hawala (illegal transaction) case. It is a sin to vote for such people, Modi said adding Congress has compromised the security of the nation by demanding proof of attack on terrorist camps in Pakistan. Criticising the Congress for indulging in vote bank politics, Modi said had it wanted they could have solved the problems in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir after the 1971 Indo-Pak war. But they kept the issues burning deliberately for their vested interests. The Congress allowed infiltration to ensure that their vote bank remained intact. But this chowkidar will ensure that infiltration is stopped to protect the interests of the people of Assam and northeast ... We will ensure Indo-Bangla border fencing is completed soon, that there are no names of foreigners in the National Register of Citizens and no genuine Indians are left out, he added. PTI editorial@tribune.com Naveen S Garewal Tribune News Service Amaravathi, April 10 Confident of regional parties emerging as the force behind the next Central government, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the BJP has slipped into a negative zone and its graph is falling. This indicates that the country is heading towards a hung Parliament in which the Congress could be the anchor. In an interview with The Tribune on the eve of polling in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Naidu said despite support by Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao and the BJP to his opponent YSR Congress, the TDP was confident of a gaining the majority. Referring to the Telangana CMs recent support to Andhra Pradesh for a special status, he said every regional party, including TRS, is now distancing itself from the BJP, which is unlikely to cross the 200-mark. In such scenario, the repeat of 1996 is possible where the regional parties would form the government with the Congress involvement. In 1996, the United Front comprising regional parties formed the government at the Centre with the support of the Congress. He said the recent Supreme Court decision to increase VVPAT physical verification from 1 to 5 EVMs each constituency would further cause a setback to the BJP. Maintaining that the EVMs were prone to rigging, the TDP leader said: I understand electronics well the chip in the EVM can be hacked and the BJP has been doing this in the past. The VVPAT tally would put some checks, though not completely. Naidu also claimed some Hyderabad-based IT experts were approaching parties to hack the EVM for a cost. He also accused Modi and KCR of using money power to help the YSR Congress, while TDP leaders were being raided to prevent them from campaigning. He said the BJP has failed to fulfil promises made in the 2014 manifesto and destroyed the democratic fabric of the country by threatening the CBI and other institutions. Ruling out the suggestion of former PM HD Deve Gowda that Naidu could lead the regional parties, he said, I dont want to go to Delhi, my state needs me. Right now, my objective is to save democracy in the country. He reiterated that the Congress could be the anchor party and the decision on the PM candidate would be taken mutually depending on the number of seats won by the coalition partners. On the possibility of TRS chief K Chandrashekar joining the mahagathbandhan, he said, I am not averse to his joining it is just that he cannot be trusted. Earlier, he spoke of the Federal Front and then he became Modis friend. He has manipulated things in his favour. editorial@tribune.com Manas Dasgupta Ahmedabad, April 10 Prime Minister Narendra Modi today issued a veiled threat to Congress leaders looting the country and supporting separatists that their ultimate destination would be jails if his government retained power. Addressing public meetings at Junagadh in Saurashtra region and Songadh in south Gujarat during his first election visit to his home state, Modi devoted his entire speech, barring the last few minutes, only to Congress bashing and also criticising the mahagathbandhan. Even the poor have started saying that garibi (poverty) can be removed only if Congress is removed, he said. Referring to the ongoing raids on the close aides of some Congress leaders, particularly Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, Modi coined a new name Tughlaq Road (official residence of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi) chunavi ghotala (election scam). The Congress is known for its umpteen scams. In fact, the party has only looted this country whenever it has come to power. The Congress is looting the aid provided to the poor, destitute children and pregnant women to fill the belly of its leaders, he said. Describing the Congress manifesto as nothing but a dhakosla patra, Modi attacked the party for its promise to amend the sedition law providing for bail even in cases of serious crimes. For whom are you suggesting the change? Is it to safeguard your own leaders? Have you got the inclination that the addresses of your leaders will be jails if Modi retains power? In the last five years I have brought these leaders who are looting the country on the doorstep of jails and in the next five years they will all be pushed inside, he said. Accusing the Congress of pursuing one-point programme of corruption and loot, Modi said the Congress had come to power in MP not even six months ago, but it had already emptied its coffers by looting peoples money. After Karnataka, MP has become second ATM for the Congress and I believe the story in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where too the Congress has just come to power, will be no different, he said. Invoking the son of the soil theory, the PM lambasted the Congress for insulting Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, former PM Morarji Desai and now him, a Gujju chaiwala. While the Sardar, one of the architects of Congress, dedicated his life for the unification of the country, the present Congress is supporting divisive forces threatening to severe J&Ks ties with India. Will any Indian citizen demand two PMs in one country? he said. Describing the Congress and particularly Nehru Gandhi family as anti-Gujarat and anti-Gujarati, Modi said: While in our track record you will see the measures taken for the security and development of the country, the Congress tape recorder has only one song Modi hatao, Modi hatao. editorial@tribune.com Shahira Naim Tribune News Service Lucknow, April 10 After a thunderous reception and crowd of supporters applauding him during a roadshow, Congress president Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat today. Accompanying him at the Collectorate were mother Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, brother-in-law Robert Vadra and nephew and niece Rehan and Miraya. The 4-km long roadshow from V Mart to the administrative headquarters of Amethi at Gauriganj was lined by supporters waving the Congress and special blue Nyay flags with Rs72,000 written on it. Clearly, the party cadre had worked hard for the massive show of strength on the streets of Amethi to dispel opponent BJP candidate Smriti Iranis charge that Gandhi was running away to Wayanad as he was sure to lose in Amethi. Thousands of supporters showered petals on the open vehicle in which the Gandhi-Vadra family was travelling as the brother-sister duo continuously waved back. Huge hoardings declaring Rahul as the future Prime Minister dotted the route. Party workers carried larger than life cut-outs of Rahul and Priyanka. Speaking to reporters after filing his nomination papers, Rahul challenged PM Narendra Modi for an open debate on the Rafale issue and demonetisation. Debate on Rafale, corruption and note ban, he said, buoyed by the Supreme Court order earlier in the day. In a setback to the Centre, the SC allowed leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgment and dismissed the governments preliminary objections claiming privilege over them. Rahul said: Sometime ago in a structured interview, the PM said the SC has given a clean chit, etc. Now the SC has made it clear that chowkidarji has committed a theft. (It has) accepted that there is some corruption in Rafale. The government has repeatedly denied any corruption in the Rafale deal. I want to directly challenge (you, Modi)... The SC has said that you have indulged in corruption. Come lets debate... Country wants to know about corruption, Rafale deal, demonetisation and (BJP president) Amti Shahs son, he said. On the day her brother filed his nomination for Amethi, Priyanka said the constituency was her fathers karmabhoomi and its land was sacred for her family. Some relationships are from the heart. Today, the whole family was present for my brothers nomination. This was my fathers karmabhoomi, it is sacred land for us, Priyanka tweeted. Rahul is seeking his fourth consecutive term from Amethi where he is locked in a battle with Union Minister Smriti Irani. Gandhi had defeated Irani with by over one lakh votes in 2014 but Irani has remained active nurturing the constituency in the past five years. (With PTI inputs) vinaymishra188@gmail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 10 In a setback to the NDA government on the eve of the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court today rejected its objections and decided to rely on fresh documents to decide a review petition in the Rafale deal case. There is no provision in the Official Secrets Act and no such provision in any other statute has been brought to our notice by which Parliament has vested any power in the executive arm of the government either to restrain publication of documents marked as secret or from placing such documents before a Court of Law, which may have been called upon to adjudicate a legal issue concerning the parties, said a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph. Justice Joseph, who agreed with the CJI and Justice Kaul, delivered a separate but concurring judgment giving certain additional reasons for rejecting the governments objections against considering the new documents. The review petition will now be decided on merits after considering the new documents relied upon by petitioners Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan. The NDA government had signed a deal with France in 2016 for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore in flyaway condition. Alleging irregularities, Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan had sought a probe into the deal. But the Bench had on December 14 dismissed the petition, holding there was no commercial favouritism and occasion to really doubt the decision-making process warranting setting aside of the contract. The controversy in the review petition relates to three documents an eightpage note dated June 1, 2016, written by three members of Indian Negotiating Team for Rafale deal and two secret documents Note18 of the Ministry of Defence and Note10 written by Ministry of Defence Deputy Secretary SK Sharma relied upon in the review petition. Attorney General KK Venugopal had questioned the admissibility of the three documents stolen from the MoD and relied upon by Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan in their review petition, contending it amounted to a crime under the Official Secrets Act. The government had claimed privilege over these documents and said even RTI Act didnt allow such documents to be shared. Venugopal had also claimed that certain State actions were outside the purview ofjudicial review and which lie within the political domain. But the three judges on the Bench unanimously rejected the governments objections. The test of admissibility of evidence lies in its relevancy, unless there is an express or necessarily implied prohibition in the Constitution or other law evidence obtained as a result of illegal search or seizure is not liable to be shut out, it said, citing a SC verdict. Insofar as the claim of privilege is concerned, on the very face of it, Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, relates to unpublished public records. As already noticed, the three documents have been published in different editions of The Hindu, it said. That apart a claim of immunity against disclosure under Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act has to be essentially adjudged on the touchstone of public interest and to satisfy itself that public interest is not put to jeopardy by requiring disclosure, the Court may even inspect the document in question though the said power has to be sparingly exercised, it noted. Such an exercise, however, would not be necessary in the present case as the document(s) being in public domain and within the reach and knowledge of the entire citizenry, a practical and common sense approach would lead to the obvious conclusion that it would be a meaningless and an exercise in utter futility for the Court to refrain from reading and considering the said document or from shutting out its evidentiary worth and value. The Bench cited Section 8(2) of RTI Act which contemplates that notwithstanding anything in the OSA and the exemptions permissible under Section 8(1) of the Act, a public authority would be justified in allowing access to information, if on proper balancing, public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm sought to be protected. However, it said, When the documents in question are already in the public domain, we do not see how the protection under Section 8(1)(a) of the Act would serve public interest. MoD concern: Sensitive info in public domain New Delhi: The main concern of the Centre relates to availability of sensitive and classified information concerning national security in the public domain, the Ministry of Defence said. The petitioners have relied upon documents, some of which could not have been placed in public domain, it said. The Centre has already raised an objection that while considering the review petition, the said documents may not be considered, as they are classified. It is reiterated that the petitioners are using documents with the intention to present a selective and incomplete picture of internal secret deliberations on a matter relating to national security and defence, the MoD said. The documents presented by the petitioners fail to bring out how the issues were addressed and resolved and necessary approvals of the competent authorities taken, it said. PTI editorial@tribune.com Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 10 Anxiety is growing in state Congress ranks over lack of representation to Hindus in the ticket allocation so far. Of the nine nominees declared by the party leadership in Punjab, the only Hindu candidate is state unit chief Sunil Jakhar. With former minister Ambika Soni opting out of the fray and state minister Vijay Inder Singla also not keen, it remains to be seen how the Congress will offer representation to three Hindu candidates in 13 parliamentary segments as has been the practice lately. Former minister Manish Tewaris candidature from Anandpur Sahib continues to be unclear amid reports that Congress president Rahul Gandhi will take a call on the seat. It is learnt that Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has sought nomination for wife Navjot Kaur who was denied ticket for Chandigarh. Sources indicate that she could be considered only from Amritsar or Anandpur Sahib. In Amritsar, the Congress has already named sitting MP Gurjit Aujla as its candidate. With Navjot Kaur still in contention, the race for tickets has heated up further. Some clarity on these issues is expected tomorrow when the partys central election committee meets under the chairmanship of Rahul Gandhi. The pending nominations are: Anandpur Sahib, Bathinda, Sangrur and Ferozepur. Sources say though Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is backing former MLA Kewal Dhillon from Sangrur, Rahul is yet to give any indication on this matter. He would also have to consider the factor of Hindu representation in ticket distribution. In two previous elections, the Congress had given tickets to three Hindu faces Ambika Soni, Jakhar and Singla in the 2014 LS polls. The party could reduce the Hindu representation to two this time. Party strategists have so far been conscious of the need to represent various communities, which was why the party fielded Mohd Sadiq, a Mazhabi Sikh from Faridkot. If the party can consider a Mazhabi Sikh from Faridkot to ensure adequate representation to all sections, how can they ignore the larger section of Hindus in the state? a senior leader asked. It is learnt that the Indian Youth Congress has recommended the names of state youth Congress chief Amarpreet Lally and Yadvindra Singh Kang for Anandpur Sahib and Health Minister Brahm Mohindras son Mohit Mohindra from Bathinda. Mohit is Punjab Youth Congress general secretary incharge of Bathinda segment. Former national president of IYC Raja Warring has also expressed a desire to contest from either Bathinda or Ferozepur. The CEC will take a final call tomorrow. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Vikramdeep Johal Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 10 Days before the Jallianwala Bagh bloodbath, The Tribune wrote two hard-hitting, cautionary editorials, titled A Colossal Blunder and Blazing Indiscretion. Both proved amazingly prophetic, foreshadowing the mayhem unleashed by the colonial rulers. The first editorial (March 21, 1919) questioned the governments extraordinarily unwise action of going ahead with the draconian Rowlatt Bills. We can only hope it (government) will have the chivalry and the fairness to accept all the responsibility for the consequences that will follow, consequences in the shape of constitutional agitation of unprecedented magnitude and strength both for the reversal of this particular measure and the making of a recurrence of the present disaster impossible in future, wrote The Tribune, then based in Lahore. The other editorial (April 10) was a scathing indictment of the ruthless policies of Michael ODwyer, then Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab province. Pulling no punches, the newspaper asserted: But our strongest objection is to the spirit and temper which Sir Michael ODwyer brings to the discussion. His Honour knows, as we all do, that the atmosphere is highly surcharged, that the public mind is in a state of unusual excitement. At such a time, a wise ruler would do all he could to allay the public feeling, to utter the soft word that turneth away wrath. The exact reverse of this policy Sir Michael ODwyer follows. It was such bold writing, unjustly dubbed seditious by the repressive powers-that-be, that led to the arrest and incarceration of the Editor, Kalinath Ray; the newspaper was fined and its publication suspended. Ray was accused of having published false reports which he had no reasonable ground to believe to be true and which were likely to cause fear and alarm to the public, and promote feelings of enmity and hatred among His Majestys subjects. Pleading not guilty, he found a vociferous defender in Mahatma Gandhi, who observed, In every case the writer has fortified himself with what he believed to be facts, and which, so far as the judgment allows us to see, have not been controverted. Four months after his arrest, Ray walked out of jail on August 27, 1919 as defiant and uncompromising as ever. On April 6, 1919, the day of a nationwide protest called by Gandhi, The Tribune made an earnest appeal to its readers, stressing on maintaining dignity and self-restraint: We are out not for creating trouble but for preventing it, not for acting lawlessly, but for making a strong and decisive protest against the passing of a lawless law, not for violating our brothers rights, but for preventing a violation of our own rights and theirs Our only weapons are the weapons of knowledge, of self-suffering and sacrifice. Our only appeal is to the force of public opinion, the mightiest of all forces. That is what the great leader of the movement has impressively taught us... The newspaper thus rose to the occasion during turbulent times without compromising objectivity and left its indelible imprint on the freedom struggle. These editorials and other writings are part of The Tribunes upcoming book, Martyrdom to Freedom: 100 Years of Jallianwala Bagh, to be released on the centenary of the momentous tragedy. 5 crucial questions posed by the Tribune in 1919 In its edition dated December 7, 1919, The Tribune asked five key questions based on Brigadier General Reginald Dyers deposition before the Hunter Committee: Was the General justified in taking no step between 12:30 pm, when he first heard that a meeting was going to take place, and 4:30 pm, when the meeting did take place, to prevent the crowd from assembling? Was he justified in opening fire without warning and without giving an opportunity to the gathering to disperse? Was he justified in not stopping the firing when he found that with the very opening of fire the crowd had begun to disperse? Was it necessary for him to continue, and was he justified in continuing to fire until ammunition had run short and about 500 men had been killed and at least thrice as many men had been wounded? Was he justified in leaving the wounded to their fate, and taking no step to render first aid to them? The newspaper made it clear that to all properly constituted minds, these questions admit of but one answer an unequivocal no and went on to demonstrate how unconvincing were the Generals answers. A century later, Britain continues to maintain silence on The Tribunes probing posers. editorial@tribune.com Chandigarh/Patiala, April 10 Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday said all allegations made by his party against the IG were being proved right as the Chief Minister has jumped to the rescue of his front man. Our aim was not to stall the probe. We have not complained against any other member of the SIT, except Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh as he had become a pawn in the hands of Congress and playing politics on this sensitive matter, he said. Sukhbir said the CM had reacted only on the transfer of the IG and not on any other officer. Speaking to The Tribune after rallies in Sanaur, Nabha and Patran, Sukhbir alleged that the IG was also heading the Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU) and the officer was working overtime to ensure that gangsters supported the party in the elections. Trashing his charge, the CMsaid the Congress had the support of the people and did not need gangsters held, unlike the Akalis. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 10 Citing various legal, judicial and constitutional objections, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) seeking a review of the Election Commission order relieving IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh as member of the SIT probing the Bagari firing incident. In his letter to CEC Sunil Arora, the CMsaid the SIT was carrying out a fair investigation, which was an ongoing statutory process under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and was not affected by the model code of conduct. The EC order of April 5, transferring the IG out of the SIT, constituted as interference in the ongoing investigation as also an implied conflict with the findings of the judgment of the High Court dated January 25, which had rejected the allegations against the SITs composition and the manner of investigation. Asserting that there was nothing unusual about an investigating agency communicating with the media, the Chief Minister said, Such briefings are now a matter of norm and practice in the interest of transparency and public awareness. Even investigating agencies such as the CBI issue press releases from time to time or upload details on their website, he pointed out. The IGs interview in question, when viewed in the right perspective, was clearly not in breach of the poll code. It was not politically motivated as he made no political comment, the Chief Minister wrote in his letter. Rather, despite pointed political questions, Kuwar Vijay Pratap specifically declined from answering such questions, he added. While the state had judiciously complied with the EC order, the same merited review, said the CM, giving details of the same. The entire tone and tenor of the complaint on which the EC had acted were the precise allegations made before the Punjab and Haryana High Court in writ petitions, seeking transfer of the investigation to the CBI, and had been duly rejected the court, which had reposed full faith in the present SIT. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Sarika Sharma Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 10 Renowned poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling hailed Butcher of Amritsar, General Reginald Dyer, as the man who saved India. For years, it has been alleged that he also started a benefit fund for him. A British historian says he has finally found evidence against this hearsay. On July 8, 1920, British right-wing newspaper Morning Post (which later merged with the Telegraph) launched General Dyer Fund, which raised about 26,000, presented to Dyer on his return to Britain the same year. It is alleged that Kipling had started the fund, though there never has been any evidence of the same. Kim Wagner, senior lecturer in British Imperial History at Queen Mary University of London, now says that Dyer was eulogised as the Saviour of Punjab in the Anglo-Indian press in India in early 1920, but that had nothing to do with Kipling, and when the Morning Post fund was launched, it was under the heading The Man Who Saved India. However, he says Kipling had nothing to do with organising this fund. He did contribute to the fund on July 17, 1920. He donated 10 (equivalent of 500 today), which should be seen in the context of donations ranging from anything between 1 and 50, says Wagner. The Morning Post had supported Dyers action on the ground that he did his duty, regardless of consequences. On General Dyers judgment, and his judgment alone, the future of the Punjab, and it may well be of India, was placed, and fearlessly he did his duty. His worst enemies cannot say that the result of his action was revolution; on the contrary, revolution gaining ground on every side was crushed, it wrote in the same issue. The news item says that the men and women who have contributed to the fund have shown their approval of Dyers action. It says these are people who lived in India and whose life experience has shown them the real question at issue and notes that joining them is Rudyard Kipling, the poet of the Empire. When Dyer was buried in 1927, Kipling sent a wreath with the inscription: He did his duty as he saw it. Wagner says it is clear that Kipling was supportive of Dyer, but there is simply no evidence that he played an active role in defending and celebrating Dyer, as has been claimed. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Moscow, April 11 Fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden on Thursday slammed the arrest in London of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, calling it a dark moment for press freedom. Snowden fled to Russia in 2013 after leaking thousands of classified documents to the media about the US governments extensive surveillance activities. Images of Ecuadors ambassador inviting the UKs secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher oflike it or notaward-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books, the former contractor with the US National Security Agency said on Twitter. Assanges critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom, said the fugitive former US government contractor. Snowden denounced Ecuadors decision to withdraw asylum from Assange, who had been living in its London embassy since 2012. He called the decision an extraordinary and very likely unprecedented revocation of what at least the United Nations considers a legitimate grant of asylum. Like Snowden, Assange remains a polarising figure, with some calling him a heroic campaigner for openness, while others accuse him of being an enemy of the US trying to avoid justice. I dont have to agree with every part of a mans journalism to believe he shouldnt be arrested for it, Snowden wrote in response to criticism of Assanges methods. Snowden is has largely maintained a low profile in Russia after being given refugee status by the authorities. AFP gspannu7@gmail.com Quito, April 11 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, arrested in London on Thursday after Quito withdrew his political asylum, will not be extradited to any country where he could face torture or the death penalty, Ecuadors president said. I asked Great Britain for the guarantee that Mr Assange will not be extradited to any country in which he could suffer torture or the death penalty, President Lenin Moreno said in a video message posted on social media. The British government has confirmed in writing that they will meet this requirement, Moreno said. Moreno earlier tweeted that Ecuador was within its sovereign rights to withdraw Assanges asylum for repeatedly violating international conventions and the protocol of co-habitation. Assange has been living at Ecuadors embassy in London since 2012 when he sought refuge there after being accused of sexual assault in Sweden. He was arrested by British police who entered the embassy on Thursday after Quito withdrew his asylum. Rafael Correa, Morenos predecessor who was instrumental in granting Assange asylum, slammed the reversal of policy as a crime. Moreno is a corrupt man, but what he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget, tweeted Correa, who now lives in Belgium. AFP editorial@tribune.com JERUSALEM, April 10 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to re-election on Wednesday, with religious-rightist parties set to hand him a parliamentary majority despite a close contest against his main centrist challenger, a vote tally showed. With more than 97 per cent of votes counted, Netanyahus conservative Likud party looked likely to muster enough support to control 65 of the Knessets 120 seats and be named to head the next coalition government. It will be his record fifth term as premier. President Reuven Rivlin said on Twitter he would begin meeting next week with political parties that won parliamentary seats to hear who they support for prime minister. At the sessions, which Rivlin said would be broadcast live to ensure transparency, he would then pick a party leader to try to form a coalition, giving the candidate 28 days to do so, with a two-week extension if needed. The close and often vitriolic contest was widely seen in Israel as a referendum on Netanyahus character and record in the face of corruption allegations. He faces possible indictment in three graft cases, and has denied wrongdoing in all of them. Reuters His win good sign for peace: Trump US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus re-election after a national vote was a good sign for peace. Trump made the remark to reporters at the White House. pardeepdhull@gmail.com Khartoum, April 11 The Sudanese army has removed veteran President Omar al-Bashir from power and detained him, Defence Minister Awad Ibnouf announced on state television on Thursday. I announce as minister of defence the toppling of the regime and detaining its chief in a secure place, Ibnouf said. Bashir, who ruled with an iron fist since he took power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, was ousted after deadly force failed to end four months of nationwide protests for his ouster. We have replaced him by a transitional military council for two years and have suspended Sudans 2005 constitution, Ibnouf said, reading from a statement. We announce a state of emergency across the country for three months, and we have ordered the closing of the countrys borders and airspace until a new announcement is made. Ibnouf said the military council had also declared a nationwide ceasefire, that includes the war-torn regions of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan where Bashirs government had long been battling ethnic minority rebels. AFP 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. The Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago (SATT) said that its members will not be Photo via Huanqiu.com The case of a man who broke a finger of a terracotta warrior and brought it home from an exhibition in the US state of Pennsylvania last year on Tuesday ended in mistrial, upsetting the Chinese internet, calling it unfair and prejudiced. The defendant, Michael Rohana, had confessed to breaking off and bringing home a finger of a terracotta warrior during an exhibition last year at the Franklin Institute, a museum in Pennsylvania. However, his lawyers argued that the man had been inappropriately charged. These charges were made for art thieves think like Oceans Eleven or Mission: Impossible, a lawyer was quoted as saying by The Philadelphia Inquirer, describing Rohana as a drunk kid. While assistant US Attorney K.T. Newton hit back at the excuses, arguing that it is still theft, five of the 12 jurors also claimed a 7-5 split in favor of acquittal, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The incident took place when 10 terracotta warrior statues were on loan from China at the museum for a special exhibition. As each of the statues dates back to at least 209 BC in the era of the first Chinese emperor some 2,000 years ago, the terracotta warriors have long been considered one of the best national treasures of China. Many netizens were angered by the incident and had demanded a fair judgment on the irreversible damage on the national treasure. The result of a mistrial and the jurys acquittal preference has now reignited the Chinese internet. On Sina Weibo, the news has received over 30 million views, with multiple comments accusing the jury of prejudice against Chinese culture and treasures. What if a piece of the bell of Independence Hall were taken home by some drunk person? Will you also call it inappropriate in a theft trial? asked one netizen. Some even suggested that national treasures of Chinese cultural relics should not be on loan to the US any more. - The assistant chief disappeared with Huduma Namba registration equipment on two separate occasions - He would later be nabbed at a local bar and arraigned in court - It is believed he aimed at frustrating the registration process in his Sub-location Amid the existing stigma by Kenyans towards the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS), one assistant chief in Muranga decided to literally take matters into his own hands in handling the registration push. Gerald Maina Ndirangu was charged with sabotaging the Huduma Namba registration process after he was busted with the registration kits at a local bar. READ ALSO: No passport for Kenyans who fail to acquire Huduma Namba - Immigration PS Kihalangwa Appearing before Muranga Principal Magistrate Edwin Nyaga, Ndirangu was accused of frustrating the registration process on diverse dates between April 5 and 7. During the said dates, he is said to have disappeared with the kits from his Gikandu Sub-location. He would later be found at a local bar enjoying drinks with friends with the kits at his mercy. Both Uhuru and Raila have registered for their respective 'Huduma Nambas' Source: UGC READ ALSO: William Ruto silences critics, queues to register for Huduma Namba After interdiction, he was released on a KSh 100,000 bond and surety of a similar amount. The assistant chiefs feelings towards the Huduma Namba only sums up an overall assumption by Kenyans at large. President Uhuru Kenyatta was recently left disgusted after reports rocked social media claiming the system was a product of the Illuminati. The National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS)` is a mass biometric registration system introduced by the government to store data belonging to the Kenyan population. While the government has clarified that it is not mandatory to register for the system, Kenyans without a Huduma Namba will be left largely disadvantaged as they will be unable to access some basic services including applying for a passport. The assistant chief's case will be heard again in June 2019. Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. The Untold Story of Wamama.The King of Kilimani Mums: Source: Tuko.co.ke U.S. Army Colonel Robert Peters, chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, has transferred medical equipment to Ukrainian military, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has reported on Twitter. "On behalf of the United States, Colonel Robert Peters transferred medical equipment to support military efforts to eliminate landmine hazards and assist victims in Ukraine. Direct military and humanitarian demining assistance saves Ukrainian lives," the report reads. Peters said in October 2018 that military cooperation between Ukraine and the United States had increased significantly since 2014. "Military cooperation is like a big ship on a course, the crews change out, but the course is pretty much the same. We stay consistent and have enjoyed a consistent 25-year relationship with Ukraine. Post 2014, we have picked up speed on the course and we are now moving more quickly towards our common goals," Defense Blog quoted Peters as saying. op The deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas is the best solution so far. "Together with our NATO partners, we restored the army, made it able to protect against the aggressor. We and our friends in the Normandy format, as well as the US, elaborated the effective plan for the occupied part of Donbas. I do not hear any alternative suggestions. Our plan is a multilateral, classic "blue helmet" peacekeeping mission under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council and a roadmap for the implementation of all the Minsk agreements, including the withdrawal of foreign troops," President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said at the 12th Kyiv Security Forum, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. At the same time, he stressed that weakened Ukraine, after the brawls during elections, led by an inexperienced president could become an opportunity for Putin to move forward. "Predators, as a rule, attack a victim exactly when it is injured and weak. If the Supreme Commander-in-Chief does not determine the red lines, it will be an invitation for Putins aggression against us," the President said. As a reminder, Ukraine insists on the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission throughout the territory of the occupied Donbas and the section of Russia-Ukraine border with a length of 420 km, as well as granting peacekeepers broad rights. However, Russia claims that UN peacekeepers should only engage in ensuring protection for OSCE observers. ol SolarGaps has become the first start-up in Ukraine to receive a EUR 1 million grant in equity free funding under the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2, according to InVenture. "SolarGaps became the first Ukrainian start-up which received SME Instrument Horizon 2020 Phase 2 grant since the interview stage in Brussels was introduced. The start-up secured EUR 1 million of equity free funding for commercialization of the world's first smart blinds with solar panels. Thereby, Ukrainian start-up SolarGaps got to top 5% of European innovative start-ups that succeed to get an SME Instrument Phase 2 grant," the report reads. It notes that the SolarGaps team invented the world's first smart window blinds which generate solar energy. SolarGaps blinds allow everyone to produce green energy from the window surface, thus saving a great part of electricity bill and decreasing CO2 emissions. One square meter is enough to power three laptops or 30 led lamps. SolarGaps received EU certification and finished B2C product development. Their dealers will start sales in EU markets in a month. The team participated in IoT Hub Acceleration program in Ukraine and two of the largest acceleration programs in the United States: HAX Growth and Singularity University. Ukrainian start-up SolarGaps earlier received EUR 50,000 funding from the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 1. Startup SolarGaps produces "smart" shutters that generate solar energy - up to hundreds of kilowatts each month at a relatively low price of the gadget itself. Horizon 2020, the EU's EUR 80 billion Research and Innovation Program, supports the strengthening of Europe's industrial base, and innovation to solve societal challenges. op Ukraine and China have signed an agreement under which Ukraine will receive grant technical and economic assistance totaling 200 million Chinese yuan ($29.7 million), the press service of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry reported. "On April 11, First Deputy Prime Minister - Economic Development and Trade Minister of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv signed an agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of China, under which Ukraine will receive grant technical and economic assistance in the amount of 200 million Chinese yuan ($29.7 million), reads the report. The ministry stressed that this is the largest amount of grant aid to Ukraine from China over the 27 years of Ukraine's independence. The funds of grant aid to Ukraine will be directed by the government of China for technical assistance in the form of special emergency and rescue vehicles and equipment for the needs of the State Service of Ukraine (the State Emergency Service). | By Laura Lee Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue, says University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security (CHHS) program director and Maryland Carey Law professor Markus Rauschecker, JD. There are a lot of people that need to get involved when it comes to protecting against cybersecurity incidents and also responding to cybersecurity incidents. (l-r) Ben Yelin, JD, CHHS senior law and policy analyst, and Marcus Rauschecker, JD, CHHS program director. A quick scan of recent ominous headlines warning about data breaches, ransomware, worms, and viruses shows that cybercrime is on the rise. The impact of cybercrime can clearly be seen in the numbers. According to the 2019 Official Annual Cybercrime Security Report by Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime will cost the world in excess of $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. While technology professionals are certainly in demand to fill the growing need for cybersecurity experts, there also has been explosive growth in the need for cybersecurity law and policy experts capable of advising companies about the legal ramifications and responsibilities surrounding cybersecurity. Theres a huge need for cybersecurity professionals in this country and theres a significant shortage in the amount of qualified people who can fill those open positions, says Rauschecker. In fact, new cybersecurity workforce research issued by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), a globally recognized IT governance association, found that 69 percent of respondents say their cybersecurity teams are understaffed. The workforce shortage is one of the reasons the National Security Agency (NSA) National Cybersecurity Curriculum Program (NSA NCCP) put out a call for proposals in 2017 to develop a free, open-source cybersecurity curriculum with the goal of building a cyber-skilled workforce that can contribute to the security of the nation in the public and the private sectors. Rauschecker, and Ben Yelin, JD, CHHS senior law and policy analyst, both experts in cybersecurity, answered the call and were awarded a grant in 2017 to develop a cybersecurity law curriculum for NSA NCCP. Maryland Carey Law was at the forefront of the cybersecurity crisis wave when it offered its first cyber law course back in 2012, followed by the creation of the Cybersecurity and Crisis Management Law Program in partnership with CHHS in 2016. The cutting-edge program combines theoretical study and practice-based learning on legal and policy issues in cybersecurity, homeland security, public health, and emergency management to help prepare graduates to provide effective counsel to government and private-sector organizations. We thought we could fill in an important gap, says Yelin, describing the law and policy focus of their curriculum. Most educational institutions were going to contribute technical models; lessons on how to protect your network; how to protect your company from ransomware. There was this void when it came to the law and policy issues related to cybersecurity. Rauschecker agreed, adding, Here at UMB, we are one of the few schools in the country that really focuses on the law policy issues in cybersecurity, and weve done that for a number of years now. We have an advantage over other institutions in that we have such an established program already. After the team was awarded the grant in summer 2017, it quickly got to work developing a user-friendly curriculum it wanted to be accessible to learners ranging from fellow law professors to mid-career professionals. The team spent a year-and-a-half refining and developing three course modules on law and policy issues in cybersecurity that are now available on the Cybersecurity Curriculum Program website CLARK. The courses are: The courses are broken into 14 micromodules designed to be studied a la carte or as a suggested eight-week course, depending on the users level of knowledge. Micromodules in the Law and Policy of Cybercrime course include Warrant Requirements in Cyberspace, and Preparedness and Response to Cybercrime Incidents. Other micromodules include Electronic Surveillance Jurisprudence, History and Overview of the Fourth Amendment, and Legal Framework for the Collection of Bulk Metadata. Yelin says the target audience is mid-career professionals who have no background in law and policy issues as well as professors who may be designing their own curricula. It gives people who are already experts on the technical side an ability to get a foundation of knowledge on all types of law and policy subjects, he states. As cybercrime continues to proliferate across the globe, there will be an ever-increasing need for lawyers who understand the accompanying complex legal issues. Rauschecker says cybersecurity law is a growing field thats full of opportunities to do meaningful work. I always tell my students that this is an area of law thats still in its formative phase, he says. Theres still a lot of open-ended questions that havent been answered yet, so that means there has to be a lot of robust debate. I think that just makes it a very exciting field to be in, a field where you can really contribute a lot." Farmer Al-Bashir Gamo Gamo was forced to flee his village in west Niger after an armed group killed five residents. UNHCR/Louise Donovan TILLABERI, Niger - When militants attacked his village in west Niger, Al-Bashir Gamo Gamos peaceful life spent tending to his livestock was over. They kidnapped five people from my village who were later found dead, he says, explaining how armed groups threatened the village members with death if they did not leave within 12 hours. Forced to flee to the town of Inates, in western Nigers Tillaberi region, Al-Bashir now worries about how he will provide for his family as he can no longer do what he knows best - herd his animals and cultivate the land. Nobody can sleep at night, walk anywhere or cultivate crops because of fear, he says. If you want to look after your animals, you have to go to the bush, but there, they can attack you. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply troubled by ongoing violence in Nigers border areas with Mali and Burkina Faso which has forced 52,000 Nigeriens to flee their homes this year alone. Cross-border invasions and attacks by militant groups in the Tillaberi and Tahoua border regions have forced many like Al-Bashir to flee for safety to other nearby towns and villages. Nobody can sleep at night, walk anywhere or cultivate crops because of fear. The extremely volatile situation has not only caused new displacement but is also affecting 53,000 Malian refugees living in the region, some of whom are considering fleeing to other countries if the situation does not improve. Some of the displaced report horrific violence unleashed by the militants involving attacks on villages, killing of civilians, kidnappings, razing of schools and looting of homes and livestock. "It is safer to not have animals as you might be targeted, says Al-Bashir. But tending to our animals is all we have ever known." A state of emergency, declared last year in March by the government, is in effect in the Tahoua and Tillaberi border regions, with large-scale military operations ongoing. However, the prevailing violence and insecurity is hampering humanitarian relief efforts. Since October, the government and humanitarian agencies have attempted to secure certain zones to ensure distribution of aid but ongoing security threats have prevented humanitarians from reaching all those in need of assistance. UNHCR is leading a coordinated inter-agency protection response to help those fleeing. It includes protection monitoring to allocate rapid assistance to those identified as particularly vulnerable and in need. UNHCR is also working with local NGOs and a network of community groups throughout the country to provide updated information on the needs of displaced Nigeriens. Since January, over 375 incidents were reported through this mechanism and have been followed-up by UNHCR and partner agencies. "For us, its just a question of peace and security ... If we have that, the other problems will all go away too. Despite grappling with violence and insecurity along its borders, Niger remains a generous refugee host country and it is now the first African country to incorporate the Kampala Convention - the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa - into domestic law, said UNHCRs Representative in Niger, Alessandra Morelli. There are currently over 156,000 internally displaced people in Niger, mainly from the western border regions near Mali and Burkina Faso and in Diffa, in the south east, near Nigeria. There are also over 175,000 refugees, mainly from Nigeria (68 per cent) and Mali (32 per cent) in the country. Despite increasing displacement and mounting humanitarian needs, support for UNHCRs humanitarian response in Niger has been limited. Only US$54 million, accounting for 58 per cent of UNHCRs funding appeal for the humanitarian response in Niger has been received this year. UNHCR continues to call upon the international community to address the root causes of displacement in Niger and the region and to work towards peace, reiterating the need for civilians like Al-Bashir to be protected. Meanwhile, Al-Bashir hopes that the situation will ultimately improve. "For us, its just a question of peace and security, he says. If we have that, the other problems will all go away too. Shell remains a shareholder in the Gazprom-led Sakhalin-2 plant. Royal Dutch Shell has decided to exit a Baltic liquefied natural gas (LNG) project led by Russian state gas major Gazprom on the Russian Baltic coast. The development comes as Western firms struggle to expand in Russia because of pressure from sanctions imposed by the United States, while for Gazprom it could mean limited access to Shell's technology as well as the need to fund the project without the help of the Anglo-Dutch major, Reuters said. Shell, which has a long history of energy cooperation with Russia, said earlier it was studying the possible implications of a recent decision by Gazprom to move toward the full integration of its Baltic LNG and gas processing plants. Read alsoEuropean Commission ready to resume gas talks with Ukraine, Russia right after Ukraine elections "Following Gazprom's announcement on March 29 regarding the final development concept of Baltic LNG, we have decided to stop our involvement in this project," Cederic Cremers, Shell Russia's chairman, said in a statement. "We have a number of other ongoing projects with Gazprom, including as part of the Strategic Alliance established between the two companies in 2015, which are not impacted by this decision," Cremers added. Gazprom declined to comment. Shell remains a shareholder in the Gazprom-led Sakhalin-2 plant, which produces LNG on the Russian Pacific island of Sakhalin. Shell has been struggling to increase output of the frozen gas at the project for a number of reasons. Its decision to leave the Baltic LNG project leaves open a question about the availability of technology needed for this project as Shell will not be providing it. Shell had developed a technology specifically for the Sakhalin Energy LNG plant, and in February said it had created a 50/50 venture with Gazprom that would use Shell's LNG know-how to develop Russia's own technology for supercooling gas. The venture was expected to effectively insulate Russia from any new U.S. sanctions on LNG, a sector in which key technology belongs to a handful of players mainly global majors such as Shell, Exxon and Total. Russia, one of the world's biggest oil producers, has been under Western sanctions since 2014 due to its role in the Ukraine crisis. USDA raises maize yield forecast for Ukraine in MY 2018-2019 to 35.8 mln tonnes Maize exports from Ukraine in MY 2018-2019 may reach 29.5 million tonnes. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukraine's Deposit Guarantee Fund repays over US$121 mln in debt to Finance Ministry ahead of time The balance of debt on the ministry's bills exceeds UAH 52 billion ($1.9 billion). If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukraine lost a transit dispute with Russia within the World Trade Organization. The WTO rejected the claims of our country, although the actions of the Kremlin practically deprived Ukraine of direct trade links with Central Asia. The fiasco in trade disputes is the third in a row for us. Why is this happening and is it possible to fix the situation? Ukraine lost another dispute with Russia in the framework of the World Trade Organization. The WTO announced its verdict on case DS512 "Russia - Measures relating to transit traffic", which was initiated by Kyiv. Claims put forward by our country have been rejected. The essence of the dispute was as follows: On July 1, 2016, the Russian Federation banned transit by road and rail of Ukrainian agricultural products and goods subject to more than zero customs duty in accordance with the Unified Customs Tariff of the Eurasian Economic Union, intended for recipients from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Subsequently, similar restrictions were imposed by Moscow on our goods destined for Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The procedure, which exceptionally allows the transit of these goods, has never been able to be implemented. In fact, Ukraine was deprived of trade communication with the countries of Central Asia across the Ukrainian-Russian and Belarusian-Russian borders. On September 14, 2016, Ukraine applied to the Russian Federation regarding consultations in connection with the current situation. Having been refused, Kyiv on February 9, 2017, filed a lawsuit with the WTO with a request to create a panel for the consideration of the case. And now - after analyzing all the circumstances, this arbitration group found that Russia's actions satisfy all the requirements for the application of restrictions in terms of security, therefore, Moscow did not violate the commitments made when joining the WTO. In fact, the World Trade Organization agreed with the Kremlins claims that restrictive measures are among those that are necessary to protect their basic security interests. Although it decided that the application of the norm cannot depend only on the will of one side: the emergency should be related to the interests of defense or order, the timing of measures should correspond to the duration of the emergency, and the concept essential interests of national security refers only to population and territory from external threats or to the maintenance of law and order. The most important principle for the applying party is good faith, understood as the focus of measures on the protection of security interests, and not on the avoidance of obligations in the sphere of trade. The case itself is unprecedented, as it was for the first time considered by the WTO under Article 21 of the GATT, which allows for the introduction of protective measures in case of a threat to national security. Not a single state, unlike Ukraine, has ever decided to file a complaint regarding the legality of applying this article. Now, the WTO agreed with the position of Russia - they say, the political situation in Ukraine in 2014-2015 created significant threats to the national security of the Russian Federation. As a result, the transit restriction was not recognized as a violation. This is not Ukraines first defeat - the WTO has already satisfied the Russian Federations complaint about the introduction of protective duties on Russian ammonium nitrate by our country, rejected a complaint about Russias blocking imports of railway rolling stock and railway equipment (cases DS499 "Russian Federation dated October 21, 2015, and DS532 "Russian Federation - Measures relating to the importats and transit of certain Ukrainian goods" dated October 13, 2017). The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade announced that it was currently studying the decision of the arbitrators of the World Trade Organization and planned to file an appeal on the "transit" dispute. At the same time, the agency refutes the loss in two more cases in the WTO, "because this information is premature and false." "For the WTO, a two-stage resolution of disputes is natural: a group of experts and an appeals body. Contacting the appeals body is a well-established practice. Two of our cases are now being considered by the appeals body: Ukraine vs Russia on restrictions on the import of railcars and turnouts, and also Russia vs Ukraine regarding anti-dumping duties on ammonium nitrate. The result of the review is not yet known," said the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. Experts believe that its really early to talk about the defeat of Ukraine as the appeal is yet to be considered. But everything that happens is the result of the low competence of the Ukrainian representatives in the WTO and the poor-quality agreement on our country's accession to the Organization. Long way to solve problem Partner of Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm Alyona Omelchenko believes that the WTO decision on the "transit" case is exceptional - it can open the way for countries to actively use trade restrictions for security reasons. Experts have yet to analyze how this decision will affect other disputes. "Now, in order to refer to national security interests in trade disputes, states will need to prove the objective 'emergency situation' and 'good faith' when introducing measures. Namely - the focus of measures to protect the population and territory from external threats or to maintain law and order. In the near future, the expansion of such practices may adversely affect the activities of the WTO, increasing the tendency for states to move away from common trading platforms in favor of the development of regional associations," the lawyer said. She also believes that Ukraine has every chance to challenge the decision of the WTO arbitrators in the permanent Appeal Body of the World Trade Organization: "The panel has reviewed Ukraines demands and assessed them. This is of particular importance in the light of the fact that the WTO's permanent Appeals Body is limited only to issues of law considered in the report of the panel, and legal interpretation given by the panel. In fact, without the analysis carried out by the group, Ukraine would have lost the opportunity to challenge the decision on the merits." Chairman of the Council of the National Bank, Bohdan Danylyshyn, does not rule out that an appeal from Ukraine is possible, but the main thing now is to focus on new export routes. "The decision of the WTO may be revised by the appeals body of the Organization if Ukraine appeals there. But in this case, the WTO did not recognize transit restrictions for Ukraine through the territory of Russia as a violation. The Group of Experts of the Organization took the side of the Russian Federation and indicated that they could argue the application of restrictions on transit traffic by Article 21 of GATT of 1994. This article allows transit restrictions for security reasons, the WTO expert group considered the exemption applicable to the Russian Federation and Ukraine, as there is an emergency situation in international relations between these countries. The losses of the Ukrainian side from this WTO decision, taking into account the growth prospects for transit supplies, can be estimated at between $500 million and $1 billion. But losses, by the way, are small. For understanding, in terms of currency, it's only 2-3 trading days on our interbank market. And another important factor is that Ukraine became the first country in the world to file a complaint under Article 21 of the GATT. We were even recommended to refrain from such a debut, since there has been no practice of making decisions on this article. Of course, this verdict weakens our exports, but it also sharply raises the question of the need to search for and organize new routes for export," concluded Danylyshyn. He noted that Ukraine became a WTO member ten years ago and through all this time, very little attention has been paid to relations with the Organization. "Ukraine became a member of the WTO when I was Minister of Economy. For ten years we have not paid enough attention to protecting the interests of the country in the Organization. In fact, what was originally laid out is still there," the expert stressed. Oleh Ustenko, head of Blazer Foundation in Ukraine, is more critical. He says there is another very important lawsuit, where we challenge tariffs for more than 150 goods. There is a risk to lose it, too. "That is, we have entered the WTO, concluded agreements, then realized that we did something wrong, that we somehow did not protect our interests, and now we are filing lawsuits. These claims, even by the standards of well-standing countries in such institutions that are good in defending their interests, seem ridiculous. As a rule, they defend one or two positions and this is already a lot. But the list of more than 150 goods seems completely strange and abnormal. I think we will see a fiasco in this case. The bottom line is that we expose ourselves to ridicule. In the framework of the WTO, of which we are a member, we are filing lawsuits, without even understanding what to do next. Of course, everything can be fixed, but it only takes a very long time. The decision-making process in the WTO is quite long. Ukraine should be represented in such disputes by competent specialists and lawyers, and we have more than enough losses. I dont know how the 'kitchen' works, but for the time being we look ridiculous. A serious European state would not have led the case that way," summed up Ustenko. While the issue of an appeal regarding the "transit" decision of the WTO is being resolved, Ukraine has filed another lawsuit against Russia. In the framework of the meeting of the Committee on Trade Facilitation of the World Trade Organization, which took place on February 12-13 in Geneva, our delegation stated the need to consider banning the Russian Federation from importing into its territory certain goods transported in transit through the territory of Ukraine from third countries that are also members of the Organization. I would like to believe that the experience of already filed lawsuits will help the authorities cope with the next case. Nana Chornaya If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ukraine to adopt 3,000 national standards harmonized with EU in 2019 Kubiv Most of the Soviet specification standards, the so-called GOSTs (developed before 1992), became invalid in Ukraine on January 1, 2019. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter He would have 49.3% of the vote. A fresh poll conducted by the Razumkov Center sets presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky as the winner of the April 21 runoff. Incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, the other contender, will not be able to win the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine, according to journalist Sonia Koshkina's Telegram Channel. Read alsoCEC announces official results of first round of presidential elections in Ukraine (Video) According to the poll, 49.3% of voters would vote for Zelensky, while 20.6% were ready to vote for Poroshenko. The share of the undecided was 20.4%, while 9.7% of those polled refused to answer the question. More detailed results of the poll are to be made public later on Thursday, April 11. As UNIAN reported, 30.24% of voters supported Zelensky in the first round of the presidential elections in Ukraine on March 31, while 15.95% of Ukrainian citizens voted for Poroshenko. The runoff is scheduled for April 21. Prior to that, the two candidates are to hold presidential debate. The result of the vote will demonstrate whether there will be a boost to the process. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin has said the future of peace talks on Donbas in the Normandy format depends on the outcome of the second round of the presidential election in the country. "We need to wait until April 21," he told journalists on Thursday, according to the Russian news agency TASS. Read alsoGermany stands for preserving "Normandy format" of Donbas settlement "The result of the vote will, in many aspects, demonstrate whether there will be a boost to the process, whether the process will become more substantial or produce more result or will again return to the slow-moving and fruitless discussion, which the Ukrainian side regretfully conducted in the past few years," Karasin said. Earlier, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said negotiations for a political settlement of the armed conflict in Donbas must continue in the so-called Normandy format. (Ukraine, Russia, Germany, France) According to Germany's top diplomat, it is important that negotiations with a view to finding a political settlement in Donbas continue after the election of the president of Ukraine. The share of the undecided is 18%. About 51% of Ukrainians say they would vote for presidential candidate, showman Volodymyr Zelensky in the April 21 runoff, while incumbent President Petro Poroshenko would gain 21%. The share of the undecided is 18%, while 10% of those polled refused to answer the question, according to a survey conducted by the Rating sociological group on April 5-10, 2019. Read alsoFresh poll sets Zelensky as runoff winner Of those who said they would go to the polling stations during the runoff, 61% stand for Zelensky, while 24% would vote for Poroshenko. Another 15% are undecided. Among those who intend to vote in the runoff and have already decided on their choice, 71% would vote for Zelensky, while 29% would choose Poroshenko. Zelensky is ahead of his rival in all age categories. He is also a leader among the inhabitants of the east, south and the center. At the same time, the positions of both candidates are almost equal in the west. Moreover, 61% of respondents believe Zelensky will become Ukraine's president, while 17% say Poroshenko will be elected for a new term. Another 22% have not decided on their choice. Among the electoral groups of candidates who gained significant results in the first round, the relative majority is convinced that Zelensky will become the next head of state. Among Poroshenko's supporters, half are convinced of the victory of their candidate, while a quarter believes Zelensky will win. In the first round of the presidential election on March 31, Zelensky was supported by 30.24% of voters, while 15.95% voted for Poroshenko. Kulyk learnt about facts indicating that officials from the Poroshenko Administration and the Prosecutor General's Office had helped Yanukovych's criminal organization. Deputy chief of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Department of International Legal Cooperation, Head of the Criminal Procedural Management Department Kostiantyn Kulyk has accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, officials from his administration, some Members of Parliament from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko parliamentary faction and PGO senior prosecutors of meddling in a probe into a case of fugitive oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko, in which the incumbent president's allies are involved. Kulyk read out his April 11 report, which was submitted to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, at an UNIAN press conference. Read alsoProsecutor Kulyk says Presidential Administration putting pressure to slow down charges against Poroshenko's allies He says he learnt about the circumstances that indicate that officials from the Poroshenko Administration and PGO senior officials assisted ex-president Viktor Yanukovych's criminal organization. "I've drawn up a report on the facts, informing the prosecutor general of Ukraine of the need to enter the information into the State Register of Pretrial Investigations to launch a probe into the revealed circumstances," Kulyk said. The report reiterates the completion of an investigation as part of several criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 255, Part 5 of Article 191, Part 1 of Article 366, Part 3 of Article 358, Part 3 of Article 209, Part 3 of Article 212, Part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on the facts indicating that members of Yanukovych's criminal organization had committed economic and money laundering crimes. "To date, 98 individuals have been served with charge papers, including officials (12 of them are senior officials of ministries and departments, as well as the National Bank of Ukraine, six heads of regional state administrations, 14 top managers of state-owned companies). Of those who had been indicted, 42 persons had their criminal proceedings sent to the courts for consideration on the merits. According to the results of court proceedings, 27 convictions were brought, four persons were released from liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal responsibility. Court proceedings against 15 persons are under way," the report reads. Kulyk said the total value of the frozen assets was over UAH 5 billion (US$186.01 million), while the total amount of compensated losses was over US$1.5 billion. During the press conference, Kulyk announced that representatives of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, MPs from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction Ihor Kononenko, Oleksandr Hranovskiy, Valeriy Davydenko, Deputy Prosecutor Generals Yevhen Enin and Anzhela Stryzhevska and other PGO officials had meddled in the investigation of several episodes of this case. The report provided to journalists also indicates that President Poroshenko has personally intervened in the investigation. The episodes in the report include, in particular, Ukrainian businessman Serhiy Kurchenko, ex-minister of ecology Mykola Zlochevsky, former head of the Presidential Administration Borys Lozhkin, former NBU governor Valeria Gontareva, and deputy chief of the Presidential Administration Oleksiy Filatov. As UNIAN reported earlier, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko announced on March 28 that the PGO Department of International Legal Cooperation had completed an investigation into the Kurchenko case. According to him, Kurchenko is suspected of participating in Yanukovych's criminal organization and committing especially grave crimes against the state of Ukraine as part of that organization. In total, 98 persons were served with charge papers, including 12 senior officials of ministries and departments, as well as the National Bank and six heads of regional state administrations in Ukraine. On the same day, Kulyk named Lozhkin, Gontareva, Zlochevsky, Filatov among them. Kulyk's statement was handed over to journalists. It was made public by TV host Natalia Moseichuk on Channel 1+1 on March 28. Later, the PGO said in a statement that suspicions against Lozhkin, Gontareva and Filatov had been lifted. The HACC judges have been sworn in. The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine has officially launched its work on Thursday, April 11. The HACC judges and those of the Appeals Chamber took an oath at the Supreme Court premises, an UNIAN correspondent reports. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman, Chairman of the Supreme Court Yaroslav Romanyuk, Chairman of the High Council of Justice Ihor Benedysiuk, Head of the Higher Qualifications Commission of Judges Serhiy Koziakov, ambassadors of partner countries and members of the Council of International Experts attended the ceremony. Read alsoUkraine's Rada adopts bill on establishing High Anti-Corruption Court Petro Poroshenko called outstanding the day the HACC judges are being sworn in. Thirty-eight new judges are taking up their duties in a completely new court, said the head of state. There are different examples of the work of anti-corruption courts across the world there are more and less effective cases. You have all the levers, all the tools to be successful, because judicial reform, for the first time in the history of Ukraine, gives you independence from both the legislative and executive branches of government, and the president as well, Poroshenko said, addressing the judges. According to the president, the HACC premises and funds for equipping them have already been allocated. "I, as president, as well as the Ukrainian parliament, the Ukrainian government, and, most importantly, the Ukrainian people, are waiting for the start of your work," Poroshenko added. Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Oleksiy Filatov read decrees on the appointment of judges to the High Anti-Corruption Court and the Appeals Chamber, after which the judges were sworn in. As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada on June 7, 2018, adopted the law, submitted by the president, on the High Anti-Corruption Court. The law establishes that the HACC is a permanently functioning specialized court, part of Ukraine's judiciary. Twenty-seven judges shall be appointed to the HACC and 12 to the Appeals Chamber. The real balance of power is needed, Deputy Speaker believes. Signatures are being collected in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for a draft law "On the President of Ukraine." Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada, Oksana Syroid, made a corresponding announcement from the parliament rostrum on Thursday, April 11, according to an UNIAN correspondent. She noted that the reason there were so few deputies in the session hall was not only the fact that amendments to the draft law on the functioning of the Ukrainian language was on the agenda, but also because the first polls were released earlier on Thursday regarding the ratings of presidential candidates ahead of the election runoff. Syroid noted that earlier, the parliament had amended 72 laws where presidential powers were exceeded. According to the Deputy Speaker, this concerns not only the incumbent president, who took over some functions of parliament, but also the previous leaders. Read alsoFresh poll sets Zelensky as runoff winner Syroid stressed the need for a law that would fix the issue. "In Ukraine, there is no normal balance of power, there is no normal system of checks and balances," Syroid said. "We are starting to collect signatures for the draft law on the President of Ukraine, which is written in no one's favor and against no one. It is prepared to develop the Ukrainian state and to protect the freedom of every Ukrainian from the arbitrariness of a single person who one day he will take up the president's office," she said. Commenting on Syroid's statement, parliament Speaker Andriy Paruby noted that the Ukrainian parliament must be supported, as it should have powers to execute checks and balances. Russia is now heavily militarizing Crimea and the Black Sea. Some 28,000 Russian soldiers are stationed on the peninsula. Russias Federation Council on Wednesday approved a statement saying that violations of the rules of navigation by Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait are fraught with a military conflict with Russia in which NATO may be involved. The Federation Councils statement about NATOs destructive policies being implemented since the alliances creation in 1949 was timed for the organizations 70th anniversary, according to Defence Blog. The passing of Ukrainian ships through the Kerch Strait is not a question of the balance of force or of NATOs presence in the Black Sea region. It is exclusively a problem of Ukraines compliance with the established procedures that are well-known to it and had been successfully used by it up to November 2018. Ukraines attempts to bypass these procedures are fraught with the risk of a military conflict between Ukraine and Russia in which NATO may be involved, the Federation Council said. Read alsoKremlin concerned about NATO's Black Sea package statement The senators pointed out that after stepping up activity in the previously calm Baltic Region NATO was now building up military presence in the Black Sea region. NATOs support for Georgia during the tragic events in August 2008 and now for Ukraine, in particular, on November 25, 2018 when Ukrainian naval ships illegally crossed the state border of Russia in the Kerch Strait area incites the leaders of these two countries, certain about their impunity, to carry out more adventures, the statement runs. According to Deutsche Welle, Russia is now heavily militarizing Crimea and the Black Sea. Some 28,000 Russian soldiers are stationed on the peninsula. Russia has practically doubled its military budget over the past 10 years. The tensions between Russia and Ukraine are not part of a frozen conflict: they can flare up with very little warning. There have been growing tensions between the two sides over navigation in the Kerch Strait area andseized Ukrainian naval vessels. Ukraine has accused Russia of trying to occupy the Sea of Azov and damage Ukraines economy by hindering access its ports. The envoy congratulated Ukrainians on the successful holding of the first round of elections. Special Representative of the U.S. State Department for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker states that the United States wishes Ukraine success in holding the second round of presidential elections in Ukraine, but does not support any of the candidates. The statement came as Volker addressed the 12th Kyiv Security Forum via a video link, according to an UNIAN correspondent. It's been a challenging five years for Ukraine. Not only because of the annexation by Russia of Crimea, not only because of the war in Donbas, but also politically and economically, it's been very challenging times. What is encouraging to see is that Ukrainians have responded to these challenges by forging a strong and unifying national identity, one that is looking toward the implementation of further reforms and ultimate integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions. The United States stands by Ukraine in this journey," said Volker. Read alsoRussia to "test" whoever is Ukrainian president: Volker We congratulate the people of Ukraine on having a successful first round of presidential elections. We wish you well in conducting the second round of those presidential elections, as well as parliamentary elections this fall, he added. According to the U.S. special envoy, traditionally the United States does not endorse any particular candidate in any election; however, Washington stands for principles. We're strongly supporting Ukraine in the development of its democratic institutions, in economic reform, in fighting corruption, and building a strong, sovereign, secure state, Volker emphasized. This is about a criminal case opened into shady deals in defense disclosed by journalists. The National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine says officials of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office sabotage the probe into embezzlement at Ukroboronprom, Ukraine's defense giant, that were launched following a journalistic investigation. "SAPO leadership publicly emphasizes the need for an active investigation of embezzlement in defense, while their actual moves differ significantly from those voiced to the media. In fact, SAPO has been sabotaging the NABU investigation launched following a Bihus.info report," reads the statement posted on Facebook. As noted, after the opening of cases into the facts set out in the journalistic investigation, NABU immediately initiated a petition to seize from the Prosecutor General's Office a criminal case file, which probably contains correspondence [between investigation targets] made public by the media; but without agreeing the petition with SAPO, this cannot be done. NABU says SAPO has been ignoring the initiative for almost a month without explaining its moves. Read alsoCorruption in Ukroboronprom: Journalists claim anti-corruption watchdog, prosecutors involved SAPO prosecutors are constantly delaying the process of approving a petition for the seizure of materials and documents relevant to the investigation. As a result, petitions to court for appropriate permissions to conduct procedural actions are being postponed. Procedural managers in criminal proceedings, opened following Bihus.info [journalistic investigative project] reports, have submitted no instructions, except for a single oral one: not to mention in detectives' petitions sent to court the names of Oleh Hladkovsky and other persons mentioned in the journalistic investigation. This situation not only fails to contribute to a comprehensive and objective investigation into corruption in defense, but on the opposite, it makes it impossible. But it is used as an instrument of political pressure on NABU, including on the part of Head of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutors Office Nazar Kholodnytsky," NABU has stated. In turn, SAPO has refuted the NABU statement, saying the office has not hindered detectives' access to materials and documents. One invader was killed and another six were wounded on Wednesday, intelligence reports say. Russia's hybrid military forces on April 10 mounted nine attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, with two Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action. Read alsoVolunteer shares footage of Ukrainian army's hit on enemy observation post in Donbas (Video) "Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the past day. According to intelligence reports, one invader was killed and another six were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in an update published on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on April 11, 2019. Russian occupation forces opened fire from 120mm and 82mm mortars, weapons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, they also used grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms. Under attack were Ukrainian positions in the town of Avdiyivka, as well as in the villages of Opytne, Pisky, Pavlopil, Kamianka, Shyrokyne, Novozvanivka, and Stanytsia Luhanska. "Since Thursday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near the village of Vodiane, using automatic grenade launchers and small arms. One Ukrainian soldier has been wounded," the report said. The equipment was transferred by U.S. Colonel Robert Peters. The United States has transferred medical equipment to the Ukrainian military. "On behalf of the United States, Colonel Robert Peters transferred medical equipment to support military efforts to eliminate landmine hazards and assist victims in Ukraine. Direct military and humanitarian demining assistance saves Ukrainian lives," the Embassy of the United States in Ukraine wrote on Twitter on April 11, 2019. On April 10, another batch of U.S. military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine arrived at the Odesa seaport. Some 175 tonnes of military equipment, including 35 military high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWV), was delivered. He would be the first prominent Democrat charged as a result of Mueller's investigation. Former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig expects to face federal charges in connection with his 2012 work for Ukraine, according to The Washington Post. The expected charges relate to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and illegal lobbying done by former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort for the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, according to the Post. Manafort pleaded guilty to charges relating to his work for Ukraine last year. Read alsoMueller report finds no Trump-Russia conspiracy Craig's attorneys have called the expected charges a "misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion," The Hill said, citing the Post. "This case was thoroughly investigated by the [Southern District of New York] and that office decided not to pursue charges against Mr. Craig. We expect an indictment by the DC US Attorney's Office at the request of the National Security Division," Craig's lawyers said in a statement, according to The Wall Street Journal. The probe into Craig's alleged activity in Ukraine was transferred to the Southern District of New York from Mueller's office and then back to the Justice Department, according to the Journal. The expected charges relate to the Ukrainian government hiring him and his then-law firm to evaluate the former Ukrainian prime minister's corruption trial. The firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, paid the Justice Department a $4.6 million settlement in January and admitted to misleading the government about whether it acted as a foreign agent during its Ukraine work, blaming Craig for the misleading information, according to the Journal. Investigators identified an allegedly false statement in a series of letters back and forth between Craig and the Justice Department about the timing of his contact with reporters, according to the newspaper, citing people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors also reportedly believe Craig concealed a public relations firm's involvement from the Justice Department, according to the Journal. Craig's attorneys said in a statement to the Post that he is not guilty of any wrongdoing. Craig joined Skadden in 2010, after serving as White House counsel under former President Obama. He also worked at the State Department and as special counsel to the president in the 1990s under former President Bill Clinton. He would be the first prominent Democrat charged as a result of Mueller's investigation, according to the Post. The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill. He was taken into custody at a central London police station and will be brought before Westminster Magistrates' Court later. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy, where he has been holed up for nearly seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault investigation. A video posted online showed an agitated, frail-looking man with white hair and a white beard being carried out of the central London building by at least seven men, as reported by Reuters. "Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador," police said. Police said they arrested Assange after being "invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean government's withdrawal of asylum." He was taken into custody at a central London police station and will be brought before Westminster Magistrates' Court later. Read alsoU.S. Senate asks Assange to testify in Russia investigation - media Assange took refuge in 2012 in Ecuador's London embassy, behind the luxury department store Harrods, to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. Sweden later dropped the investigation, but Assange was arrested on Thursday for breaking the rules of his original bail in London. He feared being extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks. Assange's relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno's personal life. Moreno had previously said Assange has violated the terms of his asylum. Moreno said that he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty. "The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules," Moreno said. WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated Assange's political asylum in violation of international law. To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. But to others, he is a dangerous rebel who has undermined the security of the United States. Supporters of Assange had argued that living in the cramped conditions without access to sunlight had damaged his health. Sweden closed its preliminary investigation into a suspected rape in 2017 as there was "no reason to believe that the decision to hand him (Assange) over to Sweden could be implemented within a reasonable timeframe." But then Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny said at the time that the probe could be reopened should the situation change. "If he at a later time were to make himself available, I can decide to immediately resume the preliminary investigation," Ny, who has since retired, said in a 2017 statement. The statute of limitations for rape in Sweden is 10 years, unless it is deemed to be aggravated, in which case the ability to prosecute runs for longer. The Swedish Prosecution Authority had no immediate comment on Thursday regarding the news of Assange's arrest or whether a probe could be reopened. 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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 April 11 2019 Aberdeenshire Council is to press ahead with a 1.5m extension to their Buchan House headquarters in Peterhead, with a new wing of accommodation to be leased to Police Scotland. Robertson Construction is due to move on-site in mid-May for the 412sq/m build which will provide a shared administrative hub for the council and police on the upper floor, with the lower level reserved solely for the police. Architects Halliday Fraser Munro will achieve this by extending a current gable over an adjacent car park to the same design and materials specification as the existing building, connecting to it on both ground and the first floor. Gordon Milne, managing director for Robertson Eastern, said: Over the past several years, Robertson has developed a close relationship with Aberdeenshire Council and this latest project cements our reputation as specialists in delivering bespoke builds for clients. As the original developer of Buchan House, were excited to be part of the extension project that will bring much-needed additional facilities and space for Aberdeenshire Council and Police Scotland. Completion is expected in January next year. (@FahadShabbir) FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Apr, 2019 ) ::An awareness seminar in connection with tax was organised at new senate hall of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) here Thursday. The seminar was arranged by the Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization and Treasury Department, the UAF. Deputy Commissioner Punjab Revenue Authority Ahmad Ahsan and Tax consultant Mohsin Baig informed the audience about the importance of tax. The DC said that event was aimed at creating awareness about benefit of tax and tax collection mechanism among people and to dispel the misconceptions in this regards. UAF Treasurer Tariq Saeed said that the seminar would bring about results in respect to create an awareness about the tax. Director Procurement Umar Saeed also spoke. Islamabad (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th April, 2019) The Czech Republic considers Pakistan a potential market for business & investment and a delegation of Czech businessmen led by Ministry of Commerce would visit Pakistan in June 2019 to explore possibilities of JVs and business collaboration.This was said by Michal Bobek, Commercial Counselor of the Embassy of Czech Republic while interacting with business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry.Michal Bobek said that Czech Republic had established textile industry during the age of industrialization and it was now focusing on R&D. He said Czech Republic has the knowledge while Pakistan has the capacity in textile sector and their mutual cooperation in this field would be quite beneficial for both countries. He said Czech Republic was an industrialized country and Pakistan could import many quality products from it including industrial machinery, energy, electrical & telecom equipment, automobiles and many other products. He said ICCI should provide a list of businessmen who were interested in B2B meetings with the delegation of Czech Republic during its visit to Pakistan. He assured that Czech Republic Embassy would facilitate the genuine businessmen in visiting his country for business purpose.Speaking at the occasion, Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan and Czech Republic enjoyed bilateral relations since the early 1950s that should be translated into growing trade and economic relations. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Hubert Bertsch, the vice president of the Austrian association of industrialists and a member of the Austrian-Russian Business Council, believes that sanctions against Russia should be abolished, and a free trade area "from Lisbon to Vladivostok" should be created instead VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2019) Hubert Bertsch, the vice president of the Austrian association of industrialists and a member of the Austrian-Russian business Council, believes that sanctions against Russia should be abolished, and a free trade area " from Lisbon to Vladivostok " should be created instead. "We are advocating for the lifting of any sanctions because sanctions mean failure to find a diplomatic solution to open questions in politics. Sanctions must be lifted, and the work on the [establishment] of a free trade area [stretching] from Lisbon to Vladivostok must be immediately launched instead. We are promoting these ideas in various bodies," Bertsch said at an event in Vienna. Bertsch stressed that Austrian-Russian trade increased last year, and that Russian businesses were among some of the key investors in Austria's economy, with their overall investment in 2018 amounting to 25 billion Euros ($28 billion), the second largest contribution. Austrian companies are also interested in investing in Russia, which is also among the key gas suppliers and a strategic partner of Vienna, Bertsch pointed out. Last year, trade between Austria and Russia totaled $5.8 billion, compared to just $4 billion in 2017, according to the Russian Federal Customs Service. COLORADO SPRINGS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2019) Japan and Russia could have more opportunities for collaboration beyond their current engagement on the International Space Station, Shuzo Takada, director-general of the National Space Policy Secretariat (NSPS) of the Cabinet Office told Sputnik on Wednesday. "There could be possibilities for more cooperation with Russia on space beyond the International Space Station," Takada said. The two countries should continue work together on human space programs in the future, and the experience of the International Space Station (ISS) member states will take them beyond low earth collaboration, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Vice President and Director General of Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate Koichi Wakata told Sputnik earlier in the week. ISS project participants have agreed to operate the orbital outpost until 2024, with negotiations aimed at extending the service life of the station until 2028-2030 currently underway. The United States plans to stop financing the ISS project from its Federal budget in 2025. The construction of the ISS began on November 20, 1998. It has been continuously inhabited since November 2000. The ISS involves the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, and the participating countries of the European Space Agency (ESA). Takada was speaking on the sidelines of the 35th annual Space Symposium, which is taking place on April 8-11 in the US state of Colorado. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2019) Russian scientists and other citizens could be granted free flights to Earth orbit for their remarkable achievements in the future, Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday. "As the next step, when the RSC [Rocket and Space Corporation] Energia earns a certain amount of money [by organizing flights aboard Soyuz spacecraft for space tourists], we can switch to [organizing spaceflights as] certain bonuses. This means that we will carry [people to space] not in exchange for money but for remarkable achievements. [We will organize spaceflights] for unique scientists, unique Russian citizens. Why not? We will do this with pleasure. [We could organize spaceflights] for teachers," Rogozin said at a press conference at Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency in Moscow. Roscosmos has been cooperating on space tourism with US-based company Space Adventure since 2001, when the first space tourist, Dennis Tito, traveled to the orbit. Seven people have been in space under the space tourism program since then. While no space tourists have traveled to orbit since 2009, Roscosmos and Space Adventure signed in February a contract to organize a flight of two space tourists to the International Space Station before the end of 2021. One in three Russians would like to go to space as a tourist for free if given a chance, a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Foundation revealed in early April. Over two days, the Forum will bring to you a remarkable group of regional and international surgeons, urologists, specialists and consultants from across the globe to share their updates in the management of mens health related diseases with special focus on Erectile Dysfunction, Peyronies Disease and Prostate.Live surgeries, transmitted from the Urology Center of Excellence at Sheikh Khalifa General Hospital, will showcase challenging cases of penile implant, in addition to multiple symposia on all major topic updates related to Mens Health.The last 3 editions of the forum has welcomed 800 delegates together in addition to hosting live surgeries and garnering support from over 20 companies over the period of time.Dubai, United Arab Emirates Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L) meets with Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic in Zagreb, Croatia, April 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) ZAGREB, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here on Wednesday that China is willing to enhance parliamentary exchanges with Croatia to further consolidate public support for the China-Croatia relationship and promote bilateral cooperation. Li made the remarks when meeting with Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, adding that cooperation between the two countries' legislative bodies is an important component of bilateral relations. Noting that China and Croatia share a long-term friendship, Li said: "We would like to, on the basis of respecting each other's core interests and major concerns, continuously enlarge the scale of bilateral trade, enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges, strengthen mutual learning in areas such as sports, and deepen friendship between the two peoples, so as to promote bilateral relations to achieve mutual benefits and win-win outcomes." For his part, Jandrokovic said Li's visit is a trip of friendship and cooperation, and China is Croatia's great partner as well as a friend during the country's development. Croatia firmly supports the one-China principle and is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in areas including sports, culture and tourism and enhance exchanges between the two countries' legislative bodies so as to promote the development of bilateral relations, he added. The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, has led his country in commemorating 25 years of the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi. The annual commemoration is known locally as Kwibuka, which means 'to remember Paul Samasumo Vatican City. Survivors have the responsibility of healing nation Someone once asked me why we keep burdening survivors with the responsibility for our healing. It was a painful question, but I realised the answer was obvious. Survivors are the only ones with something left to give: Their forgiveness, President Kagame said. Kagame was speaking to Rwandans and visiting heads of state in Kigali for Kwibuka 25 week. The President was speaking when he inaugurated a week of national mourning in remembrance of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Kagame also thanked Rwandans and friends of Rwanda for their contribution towards the rebuilding of the country. Sisters became mothers. Strangers became friends In a speech, obtained by Vatican News, Kagame said, Today, light radiates from this place. How did it happen? Rwanda became a family, once again. The arms of our people, intertwined, constitute the pillars of our nation. We hold each other up. Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars, but none of us is alone. Together, we have woven the tattered threads of our unity into a new tapestry. Sisters became mothers. Neighbours became uncles. Strangers became friends. Our culture naturally creates new bonds of solidarity, which both console and renew, he said. Rwandan Genocide: A story of profound hope The President also told his audience that the story of the Genocide is one of profound hope. In the end, the only conclusion to draw from Rwandas story is profound hope for our world. No community is beyond repair, and the dignity of a people is never fully extinguished. Twenty-five years later, here we are. All of us. Wounded and heartbroken, yes. But unvanquished, he asserted. Sixty per cent of Rwandans born after Genocide The President nevertheless observed that about Sixty per cent of the population comprises young people who know about the Genocide from stories told to them. He urged them to shoulder the responsibility of building a better Rwanda. President Kagame and the First Lady also lit the flame of remembrance at the Genocide Memorial centre where 250,000 victims of the genocide are buried. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has adopted a resolution designating April 7 as the International Day of reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. At the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis kisses the feet of leaders from South Sudan, including President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, and vice president designates Riek Machar and Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabio. By Vatican News A remarkable, spontaneous gesture. Breaking protocol, at the conclusion of his remarks at the end of the spiritual retreat, Pope Francis fell to his knees, kissing the feet of South Sudans civil authorities. To the three of you who signed the Peace Agreement, I ask you, as a brother, remain in peace, the Pope said. I ask you from the heart. Let us move forward. There will be many problems, but dont be afraid, go forward, resolve the problems. In impromptu remarks following his address, Pope Francis said, You have started a process; may it end well. Although struggles will arise, he said, these should stay within the office. However in public, he said, before the people: [keep your] hands united. In this way, the Pope said, from simple citizens, you will become Fathers of the Nation. In his prepared remarks, the Holy Father reflected on "the gaze of God", and "the gaze of the people". He began his address with the words used by the risen Lord to greet his disconsolate disciples, following the resurrection: Peace be with you! Peace is the first gift that the Lord brought us, he said, and the first commitment that leaders of nations must pursue. Peace is the fundamental condition for ensuring the rights of each individual and the integral development of an entire people. The gaze of God The Pope continued by reflecting on the unique nature of the meeting in the Vatican: a spiritual retreatmarked by interior recollection, trusting prayer, deep reflection and encounters of reconciliation. Pope Francis defined the purpose of the retreat as one of standing together before God and discerning His will. He reminded the civil and ecclesiastical authorities present of their enormous shared responsibility for the present and future of the people of South Sudan, and of how God will ask us to render an account not only of our own lives, but the lives of others as well. Every spiritual retreat, said the Pope, should make us feel like we are standing before the gaze of the Lordwho is able to see the truth in us and to lead us fully to that truth. Pope Francis then retold the story of how Jesus gazed upon Peter, first telling him to carry out his plan of salvation for his people. This, the Pope called a gaze of election, or choosing. The second time Jesus gazed on Peter was after Peter had denied the Lord three times, on Holy Thursday. This was the gaze that touched Peters heart and brought about his conversion, said the Pope. Finally, after the resurrection, Jesus once more fixed His gaze on Peter and asked him three times to declare his love. That was when He again entrusted Peter with the mission of shepherding His flock. Jesus gaze rests, here and now, on each of us, continued Pope Francis. It is very important to meet this gaze and to ask ourselves: What is my mission and the task that God entrusts to me for the good of His people?. Jesus has put great trust in us by choosing us to be His co-workers in the creation of a more just world, said the Pope. His gaze penetrates the depths of our hearts: it loves, transforms, reconciles and unites us. The gaze of the people Pope Francis then spoke of another gaze: that of the people, a gaze that expresses their ardent desire for justice, reconciliation and peace. The Pope expressed his spiritual closeness to refugees and the sick. He remembered all those who have lost their loved ones and their homes, to families that were separated and never reunited, all the children and the elderly, the women and men who have suffered terribly on account of the conflicts and violence that have spawned so much death, hunger, hurt and tears. I think constantly of these suffering souls, said Pope Francis, and I pray that the fires of war will finally die down, so that they can return to their homes and live in serenity. Peace is possible I shall never tire of repeating, said the Pope, that peace is possible! Peace, he said, is a great gift of God, but it is also a supreme duty on the part of those with responsibility for the people. All of us are called to be peacemakers, he said, to build peace through dialogue, negotiation and forgiveness. People are exhausted by conflicts, said Pope Francis. Remember that with war, all is lost! The Pope then referred to the peace agreement signed by the highest political representatives of South Sudan last September. He congratulated the signatories of that document for having chosen the path of dialogue, for their readiness to compromise, and for their determination to achieve peace. The Pope also praised the various ecumenical initiatives of the South Sudan Council of Churches on behalf of reconciliation and peace, and care for the poor and the marginalized. He recalled his recent meeting in the Vatican with the Bishops Conference of Sudan and South Sudan during their ad limina visit. The Pope said he was struck by their optimism and concern for the many political and social difficulties in the region. A final prayer Pope Francis confirmed his hope and desire that soon, by Gods grace, he would be able to visit South Sudan, together with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The Pope then concluded his meditation with a prayer, in which he asks God the Father: to touch with the power of the Spirit the depths of every human heart, so that enemies will be open to dialogue, adversaries will join hands and peoples will meet in harmony May the whole-hearted search for peace resolve disputes, prayed the Pope, may love conquer hatred and may revenge be disarmed by forgiveness. A Spiritual Retreat involving civil and ecclesiastical authorities of South Sudan is held in the Vatican, and is opened by the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. Reflections include a meditation centered on the national anthem of Africas youngest country. By Giada Aquilino A time of grace dedicated to reflection and prayer, to ask God "for a future of peace and prosperity for the people of South Sudan". In the words of the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, this is the meaning of the spiritual retreat currently underway in the Vatican, at the Casa Santa Marta. The retreat brings together the highest civil and ecclesiastical authorities of this young African country, which gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. Opening the meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the Cardinal brought the Pope's welcome greeting to those present. Pope Francis will meet the participants on Thursday afternoon, at the end of the retreat. This two-day visit to the Vatican was approved by the Pope following a proposal presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of the Anglican Community, Justin Welby, who thought it could be a "spiritual, ecumenical and diplomatic" initiative, said Cardinal Parolin. Respect and trust The Vatican Secretary of State described the retreat as an "opportunity" for encounter and reconciliation in the spirit of "respect and trust" for those who "at this moment have the special mission and responsibility to work for the development" of South Sudan. In 2013, the country plunged into a bloody civil war, which left at least 400,000 people dead. Taking part in the retreat in the Vatican are members of the Presidency of the Republic of South Sudan who, according to the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan signed last September in Addis Ababa, include: Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic; the Vice-Presidents designate Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon, Taban Deng Gai, and Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabio, widow of the Sudanese leader, John Garang. Also participating are members of the Council of Churches of South Sudan. The preachers at the retreat are Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, Uganda, and Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar. The Pope's concern While still on his way to Rome, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, sent his greetings and thanks to the Holy Father for his hospitality "in his home" to the participants, underlining Pope Francis' concern for South Sudan, and hoping that the Holy Spirit would rest" on all the leaders of the country, whether present at the retreat or not. The Archbishop of Canterbury also recalled the commitment of Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, who visited South Sudan at the end of March. Meeting God In his remarks at the retreat, Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator dwelt on the true meaning of a spiritual retreat, understood as a time "to meet God" or, even better, as a time for God to meet us". The Lord, he explained, "will speak to us here", not by "cell phones", or "through Twitter or Facebook or Instagram", but in a retreat of healing, purification and mission as "artisans of peace". The invitation is to speak "to one another" from the depths of our hearts, enlightened by the Spirit, never forgetting the 13 million inhabitants of South Sudan, so that the peace agreement may be signed, above all, "in our hearts". Meditation on the national anthem The President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar, in the second part of the Wednesday afternoon session, extended his reflection to the South Sudanese national anthem, "South Sudan Oyee!". He urged those present to listen to the anthem during the retreat. In it, he explained, God is mentioned twice, at the beginning and at the end. The people of South Sudan, said Fr Orobator, are people "of faith", who with "one voice" pray, glorify and express trust in the Lord, in "peace and harmony". The countrys greatest resource and wealth, he added, is not in its land, water or oil: it is its people. He recalled the day of independence from Khartoum, on the 9th of July 2011: in all South Sudanese people, of every ethnicity, there was joy, euphoria, jubilation because the nation "was born", with hopes for peace, justice, prosperity, freedom, he said. Yet in the country today there are "7 million people", "almost half of the entire population", who are reduced to extreme hunger, schools are being abandoned because of inter-community violence and between clans; 4 million people have been forced to leave their homes, taking refuge in refugee camps. Fr Orobator concluded with an invitation to recover the "dream" of the national anthem, going beyond hostility and misunderstanding, choosing between war and peace: choosing "life", for a reconciliation that is not only "personal", but "national". These are the words of the National Anthem of South Sudan, on which participants at the retreat were called to meditate: Oh God We praise and glorify You For Your grace on South Sudan, Land of great abundance Uphold us united in peace and harmony. Oh Motherland We rise raising flag with the guiding star And singing songs of freedom with joy; For justice, liberty and prosperity Shall forever more reign! Oh great patriots Let us stand up in silence and respect, Saluting our martyrs whose blood Cemented our national foundation, We vow to protect our nation. Oh God, bless South Sudan! A woman cooks at her damaged house in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, outside the village of Cheia near Beira, Mozambique A vaccination campaign has been launched in Mozambiques city of Beira in an effort to stem an outbreak of cholera triggered by devastating cyclone and floods. A local businessman talks of how a joint response to the emergency is yielding its fruits. By Linda Bordoni Cyclone Idai made landfall in southeast Africa on March 14, ripping roofs off buildings, pulling down electricity pylons, uprooting trees, and bringing heavy rains and floods that swamped cities and rural areas. In Mozambique, more than 600 people died, as well as nearly 200 in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Since the disaster struck, the regionally-vital port city of Beira, 90% of which was damaged or destroyed, has functioned as a base for logistics and relief efforts coming in from across the world. Gavin van der Burgh, Chief Commercial Officer of a fishing company with extensive operations in Beira, said that thanks to the companys desalination plant many more people in the city are being provided with clean, potable water: a fundamental ally in the fight against water-borne diseases such as cholera. Listen to the interview with Gavin van der Burgh Van der Burgh said that three weeks after the cyclone hit Beira, the population has picked itself up. The people, he explained, have cleaned the streets and cleared the debris and the government has restored electricity to some parts of the city. There continues to be, however, an urgent need for medical supplies. Van der Burgh said the city is also experiencing complications as many of the displaced people from the swamped flood plains have been flown in by aid agencies and have received emergency assistance in food and clothes. But many, he added, are unable to get back to the rural areas: they are living on the streets, and that is causing the water-borne diseases like cholera. Clean water His own Company, van der Burgh explained, has been able to provide precious assistance thanks to a desalination plant that manufactures 55,000 litres of clean water a day. He said this has lifted a tangible burden from the shoulders of relief agencies that were trucking or airlifting water from other cities. Overwhelming response Van der Burgh also spoke of the incredible solidarity that has been pouring into the country. He said that when the cyclone hit, all communication with the outside world was lost, and the international community did not realise the scale of the devastation until 72 hours after the disaster. He also spoke of how he felt humbled when, soon after the scale of the devastation started to be picked up by the international news networks, his Companys international clients responded with incredible generosity. Flip-flops One restaurant chain in the US has donated 5,000 pairs of flip-flops he said, pointing out that one doesnt tend to think of that as a great necessity but in a hot, port-city like Beira, thats what most people wear, and we are talking about people who have lost everything homes, clothes, everything: so 5,000 pairs of flip-flops donated is actually putting something on the feet of those people. Aid needs to reach the right people Van der Burgh described the scene that met his eyes when he reached Beira on the Monday following the disaster, where the airport, he said, was a real hive of activity filled with cargo planes bringing in tones of aid to the population. My hope he said, is to see that the aid that has been donated, that has come in from international aid agencies, reaches the right people, the needy people. Another hope he said, is that the lesson is learnt that particularly in poor countries, where there are large rural communities, an early warning system can be put into place so that people are given the chance to be prepared for these kinds of natural disasters. On Monday, April 8, Credit One Bank, issuer of the Official Credit Card of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Aviators, presented Mondays Dark with a $10,000 check at The Space, located at 3460 Cavaretta Ct., where the variety show is held twice a month (Pictured: Lenny Chide of Credit One Bank and Mark Shunock of Mondays Dark). Following the opening of the show, Lenny Chide, senior vice president and community reinvestment officer of Credit One Bank, presented the donation to Mondays Dark founder and host, Mark Shunock. Audience members cheered on as Chide and Shunock posed for photos onstage. Rebuilding Together Southern Nevada (RTSNV), the local affiliate of national nonprofit Rebuilding Together, will host its second annual Beer & Boots Bash fundraiser on May 8 at Lovelady Brewing Company. The event will raise awareness and funds for RTSNVs mission, focused on repairing homes for low-income individuals and families, revitalizing communities and rebuilding lives. The event is complete with a silent auction and Beers & Boots Bash 50-50 Raffle last year the winner went home with $10,000. Raffle tickets are $20 each. Sponsors of the event include Lovelady Brewing, Aqua Plumbing, Wells Fargo, Ruiter Construction, NV Energy, and F.E.I. Construction. Airbus enters new era with change of CEO, AFP/File The 51-year-old Frenchman takes over from Tom Enders, who is stepping down after five years leading the France-based group whose 129,000 employees manufacture airliners, helicopters and satellites. Enders oversaw an expansion of the group, but his rein was clouded by a recent decision to scrap the loss-making A380 super-jumbo range of Airbus planes as well as multiple probes into suspect payments. The German's retirement package - worth 37 million euros (US$41 million) including pension and stocks - has sparked controversy in France and a pledge from the government that it will legislate to limit huge corporate payoffs. Faury will inherit a financially sound, highly profitable business with an order book of 7,350 passenger planes, which would be enough to keep factories running for a decade at current production rates. But he will also have to handle the fall-out from Britain's decision to leave the European Union, which threatens to disrupt the company's long and complicated supply chains which straddle Europe. "Brexit could well mean a complete rethink of long-term manufacturing strategy for Airbus and brave decisions may need to be made unless a satisfactory outcome can be agreed by UK and Brussels," independent aviation analyst Howard Wheeldon told AFP. Earlier this week, Trump lashed out again at the EU, vowing to impose fresh tariffs over subsidies to Airbus, which threatens to reignite a more-than-decade-long transatlantic skirmish. Investigations in France, Britain and reportedly in the United States into possible bribes paid to win contracts between 2008 and 2013 could cause more embarrassment -- and lead to costly fines or prosecutions. Faury, a married father of three, has spent most of his career in the aerospace industry, specialising in helicopters. He started his career in the French defence ministry before joining Airbus' helicopter division in 1998. In 2009, he left for a four-year stint in research and development at French car group Peugeot before rejoining Airbus. In February 2018, he became head of the civil aviation division, the company's biggest and most high-profile, which is considered the launching pad for the groups' top job. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (pictured March 2019) defended the measure against "asylum shopping," saying they were adding resources to ensure "the system is fair for everyone". (AFP/Lars Hagberg) The measure against so-called "asylum shopping" was slipped into a 392-page budget omnibus bill presented to parliament late on Monday. Critics called it an attack on the rights of vulnerable people, and said it flies in the face of a compassionate Canada advanced by Trudeau, once seen welcoming newcomers with a hug and a gift of a parka. But officials said it will ease pressure on Canada's refugee system, which has been overwhelmed by a recent flood of migrants arriving via the United States. "We need to recognise that there are larger numbers now than before because of global instability in terms of refugees," Trudeau told reporters as he arrived for work on Wednesday. "That's why we're putting more resources and we're also ensuring that the system is fair for everyone." Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen earlier this week said the measure is supported by the United Nations and would result in about 1,000 claimants each year being denied asylum in Canada. The provision, he explained, would simply formalise the notion that Canada's refugee system is comparable to those in other developed nations and so if an asylum bid is rejected by them, it would fail here as well. "If you are able to claim asylum in a country like Australia, which has a very robust asylum system, why would you then claim asylum again in Canada? That's called asylum shopping and we are against it. And the UN is against it," he said. Since early 2017, Canada has seen a rise in asylum seekers with about 40,000 having walked across the border from the United States in response to tightened US immigration policies. New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan denounced Ottawa's crackdown, telling lawmakers: "Humanitarian leaders do not shut their borders to asylum seekers during a refugee crisis." Janet Dench, head of the Canadian Council for Refugees, told public broadcaster CBC that she and her organization's more than 100 member groups that work with migrants were "in a state of shock and dismay and great disappointment" over the proposed changes. "This is really a devastating attack on refugee rights," she said. "We've been urging the government to drop the existing ineligibility provisions, which already leave some people without the protection that they need from Canada. "This is going a huge step further in creating another whole category of people who will be denied access to the refugee determination system on an arbitrary basis." Dr. Deborah Elms The 10 member states of ASEAN have been slowly and steadily working towards greater integration. However, the over-arching business goals of the ASEAN Economic Community for free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour, and freer movement of capital remain some way off. In the meantime, the ASEAN has begun to make forward progress on another key area of importance with the signing of an agreement on e-commerce. But what does the deal that was released last week actually do? In short, it provides the groundwork for the future. E-commerce and digital trade are likely to be critically important areas of upcoming growth. As per a report by the Asia Pacific MSME Trade Coalition (AMTC), the benefits of digital tools are especially vital for smaller firms. Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can reduce time costs by nearly 30 per cent, and drop direct business costs by over 80 per cent using digital technology. Most of the nearly 2,500 MSMEs involved in AMTC are in e-commerce and digital trade. While not all are located in the ASEAN, many are engaged in or support trade flows across the region. Most have reported challenges related to inconsistent trade rules and regulations within the ASEAN. These can be direct issues, like problems with customs valuation, paperwork or handling returned items, or indirect challenges, such as rising computing costs if world-leading cloud-based services are not available for use domestically. Southeast Asian nations vary widely in digital experience and implementation Photo: Le Toan Approaching digital trade The Southeast Asian digital economy is already estimated to be worth $72 billion. The region is also home to important unicorns like Grab, Go-Jek, Lazada, SEA, and Tokopedia. Getting these firms and others that follow to flourish requires a nurturing policy framework. So far, ASEAN member states have had limited experience in crafting complementary digital regulations. At the domestic level, ASEAN countries are headed in problematic directions, creating policies in various areas that could dramatically impede the ability of future unicorns to thrive, and strangling the prospects for smaller firms along the way. Hence, there is a necessity for the ASEAN to start tackling e-commerce and digital trade in a regional manner. The agreement reached in November 2018 puts in place some useful provisions to get going. It urges member states to use paperless trading schemes and the use of information, other than financial services, via electronic means including digital signatures. It encourages members to be transparent about consumer protection measures and urges online personal information protection. The agreement includes a clause to review the agreement within three years. The agreement contains co-operative commitments on key issues that companies care about most, such as in ICT infrastructure, legal and regulatory frameworks, electronic payments and settlement, trade facilitation, intellectual property rights in the digital era, competition policy, and cybersecurity. Part of the challenge in crafting an agreement is the wide gaps in ability between ASEAN member states. This is a perennial challenge for the ASEAN, of course, but the distance between member countries is particularly glaring in the digital space. Even the knowledge levels between officials in charge of crafting policy can be starkly divergent. A second obstacle to creating a meaningful agreement for digital trade was a lack of engagement with the business sector. While it is usually better to talk to companies when negotiating over trade issues, in the rapidly evolving e-commerce and digital realm, it is absolutely critical that officials continuously discuss ideas with the business community. Unfortunately, this engagement did not happen. The final agreement will therefore be greeted with a yawn by many companies who are likely to be quite disappointed by the outcomes embedded in the document. Creating e-commerce policy As with many things in the ASEAN, however, all is not lost, as the agreement provides the starting point for new discussions on e-commerce and digital trade. It will be monitored by the Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM) and carried out by the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Electronic Commerce (ACCEC), with the latter ensuring co-ordination with other ASEAN entities. Since nothing happens in the ASEAN unless it is embedded in the correct institutional framework, these are important outcomes. The ACCEC is now officially tasked with managing ASEANs e-commerce and digital trade policy objectives. The SEOM will have to report regularly on progress to ministers and then also to leaders. The ACCEC has a mandate to work with other groups in ASEAN that are also important to ensuring the success of e-commerce and digital trade objectives. As the agreement itself notes, this includes future work on areas like data privacy, intellectual property, and customs and trade facilitation. A report by Google and Temasek notes benefits that are already flowing into the region. These include $23 billion in e-commerce sales from 120 million shoppers, $30 billion in online travel services, and $8 billion in online transport and food delivery from 35 million users taking more than eight million rides per day. Keeping these innovative goods and services moving and paying for them are vitally important activities for the ASEAN in the future. The e-commerce agreement for the ASEAN starts the process. Member governments will need to continue to seize opportunities at the domestic level and across the region to effectively reach the potential growth prospects available in the future. Businesses also need to be ready to respond with specific recommendations for inclusion to help create successful e-commerce and digital trade policies for the bloc. E-commerce and digital policy discussions are now taking place at the domestic level, within the ASEAN, with its dialogue partners inside the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in Asia, and even in Geneva as part of a World Trade Organization initiative. Given the outsized importance of digital trade in Asia, all ASEAN members have important roles they must play in shaping future trade arrangements that matter. FM Logistics started its construction on its US$30 million warehouse and distribution centre in northern province of Bac Ninh. - VNS Photo Vu Hoa French logistics and transport company FM Logistic will build the centre which is expected to open phase one next year. Once completed, the new multi-client facility will employ around 300 people and provide 52,000sq.m of storage space for up to 70,000 pallets. Among the customers interested in the centre is Brenntag, a global market leader in chemical distribution. After one year of satisfying co-operation with FM Logistic in Bac Ninh, we have decided to expand this co-operation to temperature-controlled products, said Le Minh Vuong, Supply Chain Senior Manager, Brenntag Viet Nam. The new distribution centre will provide us with more space to absorb our important growth. The demand for logistics is rising in Viet Nam, one of the worlds fastest growing economies with a GDP growth of 7 per cent in 2018. The increasing domestic manufacturing, the rise in wages and consumption, the young population and booming e-commerce are also driving the Vietnamese logistics market. This presents opportunities for international third-party logistics companies providing value-added services and last-mile deliveries. Hamza Harti, FM Logistics country managing director for Viet Nam said the logistics market is now changing at a rapid rate. We can see logistics as a basic industry. We try to take part in transformation of Viet Nams logistics industry, he said. According to World Banks report, logistics cost in Viet Nam is high as it accounted for 20 per cent of GDP, especially in e-commerce. The reason for the high cost was due to infrastructure. Viet Nam needs more investments to make infrastructure more modern and invest in more highways and ports. We also try to contribute to the transformation by building more warehouses and logistics distribution centres. We would diminish logistics cost compared to GDP, he added. The Bac Ninh warehouse and distribution centre will support the development of food, retail, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), industrial and cosmetics companies on the booming Vietnamese market. It will also increase FM Logistics warehousing space almost tenfold, at a moment when class A-warehousing is in high demand. This testifies to our commitment to investing in Viet Nam, he said. The company said it hopes to become one of the top three players in the market in the next five years From May 2019, FM Logistic will also start operating a rented 6,500sq.m warehouse in Binh Duong. The company started operations in Viet Nam in August 2017. In 2018, it started providing nationwide transportation services, using a network of partners. Da River pipeline has broken multiple times and caused difficulties to many residents According to the centre, demand for clean water in summer increases by 12-15% in summer and this summers heat waves will be intense and long. The Ministry of Construction has asked four water companies in the area to quickly draft plans to deal with the shortage. The authorities and companies should raise the capacity of some pumping stations, repair the pipes, upgrade and build new stations while adopting water-saving measures. Hanoi Water Company were upgrading their network so that they will be able to provide 1,150,000 to 1.3 million cubic metres per day by April 15. Viwasupco said were speeding up the second phrase to increase the capacity of Da River pumping station from 300,000 to 600,000 cubic metres per day. Meanwhile, Duong River Surface Water Plant is also completing a new water plant with the capacity of providing 300,000 cubic metres a day. However, due to rapid urbanisation, they will have troubles providing water to households in higher areas. During the peak of the summer, areas that use water from Viwaco Company will lack 30,000 cubic metres a day. When being asked about the frequent breakdowns of Da River pipeline, Hanoi Water Company said there were still many risks because the pipeline was responsible for transferring 219,295 cubic metres a day, accounting for 23.27% of Hanois total clean water. When the pipeline broke multiple times before, residents in Thanh Xuan, Nam Tu Liem, Dong Da, Cau Giay, Ba Dinh and Ha Dong districts were badly affected. Hanoi Water Company said they had prepared water trucks to deal with water shortages. The Marq emanates excellence and opulence, right from the reception lounge Upon arrival at the sales gallery, visitors are welcomed by a beautifully appointed reception lounge. The stunning onyx floor featuring rich contrasting parallel layers gives the lounge an exquisite look that is rarely seen in Ho Chi Minh City. The Marq sales gallery, built following the design of the projects reception hall Like a bejewelled masterpiece, The Marqs sales gallery presents a grand development of opulent and rich textures and colours. To help customers visualise the look and feel of their future home, the sales gallery interior adopts the same design elements that will be used in the reception lobby of the actual development such as the stunning onyx floor, the wooden fins, the rose gold metal trim, and the sophisticated emerald colours. The living room of the one-bedroom show suite The one-bedroom show suite takes inspiration from the coffee bean, a product for which Vietnam is famous. The seductive coffee colour has been translated into a genteel and masculine design that fits the exciting urban living lifestyle of a bachelor. The bathroom of the one-bedroom show suite The bathroom is glamorous with marble walls and flooring in complementary colours. Sanitary wares and accessories are of the Duravit and Axor brands, respectively. The living room of the two-bedroom show suite The two-bedroom show suite is a clever union of a soft tonal colour palette and materials native to the region. Featuring relaxing and delightful accents of artistic embellishments, the core design concept of this apartment is refined craftsmanship. Select details such as rattan woven furniture and local wall arts give stylish touches of local tradition to this interior design. The master bedroom of the four-bedroom show suite The crown jewel of The Marqs sales gallery is definitely the four-bedroom show suite. Beautiful shades of emerald, warm taupe, and cream evoke a sense of calm and elegance in the design of the master suite. The decor details are all about luxury: comfy king size bed in velvet and leather upholstery, sumptuous fabric, glittering mirror, and metallics in rose gold colour. A worker at an electronics and lighting equipment production line at Viet Nam Stanley Electricity Limited Company - the Vietnamese subsidiary of Japan Stanley Electric Co. Ltd. - VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam According to Hironobu Kitagawa, chief representative of the Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in Hanoi, the Vietnamese market will remain attractive to Japanese investors in 2019. Japan was the largest investor in Vietnam last year with registered capital of nearly US$8 billion. Currently, many Japanese investors are coming to Vietnam to seek business opportunities and I expect Japan and Vietnam will maintain good business ties, Kitagawa told Vietnam News. Competitive human resources, economic and market growth, and a dynamic society are considered factors that make Vietnam an attractive destination for Japanese firms to develop their business in the future, Kitagawa said, noting Japanese investors can promote the advantages, given by Vietnams expanding economic ties with many other countries across the world thanks to its active participation in FTAs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Kitagawa said a JETRO recent survey on investment trends among Japanese firms operating in Vietnam in the 2018 fiscal year showed nearly 70 per cent of Japanese businesses want to expand operations in Vietnam after gaining good business performance last year. A total of 65.3 per cent of the 723 Japanese companies recorded high profits in Vietnam in 2018, according to the survey. The majority of these companies said the market scale and growth are the greatest advantages of Vietnams investment environment. Other positive factors include low labour cost and political stability. Vietnam ranked fourth in political and social stability, and cheap labour cost while its market size and growth took the sixth position in the ASEAN, Southwest Asia and Oceania regions, Kitagawa cited the survey as saying. Besides, experts forecast the Japanese investment inflow to Vietnam would benefit from a Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry initiative to shift Japanese investment to Vietnam and other Mekong River nations with an aim to enhance economic partnerships between the two sides. Japan's initiative to move its investments to the Mekong region nations will likely see Vietnam receive a significant slice of the pie, particularly if these investments are in lower-end manufacturing, Jason Yek, country risk analyst of Fitch Groups Fitch Solutions, told Vietnam News. Yek explained China accounts for 11.6 per cent of Japan's total outbound FDI in 2017 as compared to just 2.1 per cent for Vietnam. Given the Chinese government's goal of moving the Chinese economy away from low-end manufacturing and the rising labour costs in China, this will likely see much of these Japanese direct investments shift to countries like Vietnam, which boasts a relatively cheap and educated labour force alongside a large and growing working class population. However, instead of just focusing on manufacturing, Kitagawa forecast Japanese investment inflow to Vietnams non-manufacturing industries would keep rising in 2019 and in the next few years. Japanese investment in Vietnams non-manufacturing industries, such as retail, wholesale, IT, professional support and education, will continue to increase, fuelled by the rising growth of Vietnams consumption market, Kitagawa said. Non-manufacturing industry accounted for about 70 per cent of Japans total investment capital in Vietnam in recent years. Especially, the growth rate of the industry was higher than that of the manufacturing. According to experts, the shift of this investment capital flow is aimed to catch up with huge opportunities from the CPTPP and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Vietnam, which is considered one of the attractive consumption markets in the region with a population of some 100 million people, is luring foreign investors, including Japanese. Like China 10 years ago, incomes of Vietnamese consumers are getting higher and they are also spending more for consumption. Fine-tuning legal framework According to Kitagawa, Vietnam's business environment is relatively good compared to other countries in the ASEAN region. However, to further attract Japanese investors to Vietnam, he noted the JETRO's survey showed it was important for Vietnam to streamline the countrys legal system as it remained inadequate and less transparent. According to the survey, local authorities still lack prior research on legal content and delay in issuing documents to guide the implementation of laws, which cause adverse impacts on investors works and an inconsistency in the laws and execution. In addition, Vietnams tax regime, such as personal income tax, transfer pricing and value added tax (VAT) invoice, remains complicated and inconsistent. Besides, Kitagawa suggested the Vietnamese Government should further promote existing plans, such as the Japan-Vietnam Joint Initiative and the Vietnam Business Forum, which would enable it to continuously listen to the opinions of Japanese businesses with an aim to improve the countrys business environment. In addition, the implementation of investment promotion seminars with careful and effective preparation on Vietnam's investment environment-related documents should be also enhanced to facilitate investors in seeking information on investment and business opportunities in the country, Kitagawa said. The grand opening of the Dt&C facility in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park Dt&C Group, the parent company of Dt&C Vina, is the leading company of testing and quality certification, providing services in over 190 countries across the globe. Dt&C Vina offers an engineering consultancy business which demonstrates that certain economic activities meet legal and market criteria in Vietnam and regional markets. Dt&Cs services concentrate on the fields of automobile, health equipment, communications equipment, household electrical appliances, LED lights, railway, and national defence. Dt&C chairman ChaeGyoo Park confirmed that, Our available network of testing and quality certification in South Korea, China, and Japan will enable Dt&C Vina to be our bridge to Southeast Asia and become a leading testing and quality certification group in Asia, contributing to the development of the Vietnamese industry. At the ceremony, Nguyen Van Cuong, deputy director of Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Parks Management Authority, highlighted that the project can support the R&D activities of all facilities in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park related to electronics and electric safety. He congratulated Dt&C for carrying out and putting the project into operation on schedule. With the total investment of more than $10 million, Dt&C Vina has been equipped by cutting-edge equipment like IP tests, temperature/humidity chamber, LED performance test, a combination of electromagnetic compatibility tests evaluating the capacity of electric and electronic products (Chamber 10M, Chamber RS, ESD, Surge). In the time coming, the company will provide services of testing and certification in a one-stop format, including tests of reliability, functioning, safety, as well as compatibility with electronic and electric equipment made in Vietnam and imported from other countries. Moreover, a Dt&C subsidiary, Dt&Investment has been planning to invest in Vietnamese businesses by setting up a venture capital fund. ShopBack is a rapidly growing digital loyalty and discovery platform, with a mission to create a world of smarter shoppers. New investors spending money into ShopBack include co-leads EV Growth and Rakuten Capital, as well as EDBI, a government-linked strategic investor, along with other existing investors, raising the number of ShopBack's investors to 16. Amit Patel, CEO Ebates, Inc., under Rakuten, and Willson Cuaca, managing partner of EV Growth, will join ShopBacks board of directors (BoD). The new capital injection brings the companys total funding to $83 million. From a Singapore-based team of just three people in 2014 to a regional force of over 120 employees today, e-commerce cash back start-up ShopBack is leading the wave of smarter shopping in Asia Pacific with a one-stop lifestyle platform that powers smarter purchase decisions, with an established presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, and Australia. ShopBack has been working with leading e-commerce merchants since 2014, rewarding consumers with cash back whenever they shop via ShopBack. Apart from rewarding users with cash back for making online purchases, ShopBack has created many features to improve users buying experiences. Its latest product, ShopBack GO, helps users discover and decide where to eat while saving time and money for users. Launched in partnership with Visa and Mastercard, ShopBack GO enables users to dine out and get paid. The product also empowers food and beverage (F&B) operators to make better business decisions with data insights powered by ShopBack. In 2018, ShopBack saw 250 per cent year-on-year growth in orders and sales. The company powered over 2.5 million monthly transactions for more than seven million users in seven Asia Pacific countries and delivered close to $1 billion in sales for over 2,000 merchant partners in both online and offline spaces. In the same year, ShopBack entered Australia, its first market outside Asia. It also opened research and development hubs in Vietnam and Taiwan, driving a threefold increase in its engineering, data, and product management talent pool. ShopBacks new round of funding will be deployed into simplifying shopping experiences, expanding data capabilities to fuel personalisation and business insights, as well as accelerating growth in key markets. The company remains focused on building rewards and discovery features to enhance both online and offline shopping experiences for consumers across the Asia Pacific. Building world-class solutions that impact millions in Asia Pacific ShopBack is at the forefront of developing innovative solutions that simplify shopping experiences for users and provide pay-per-sale marketing for merchant partners. As the dominant rewards and discovery platform in Asia Pacific digital landscape, ShopBack is well-positioned to deliver smart shopping solutions tailored to consumers evolving purchase habits not only in the online space, but also in the offline space. The comprehensive view of users digital wallet spend across multiple markets, platforms and categories enable ShopBack to deliver personalised shopping experiences for its users, as well as targeted and cost-effective marketing solutions for its merchant partners. Recognising that world-class talent is needed to build world-class solutions, ShopBack has been investing in an innovative and fast-moving talent pool. Its latest research and development hub in Vietnam accounted for close to 40 per cent of the new hires in the engineering, data and product management team in 2018. ShopBack is looking to at least double its talent pool in Vietnam over the next few quarters. Alexey Vovchenko duing a performance with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra. He will perform in Vietnam as part of the Embassy of Musical Mastery programme. - Photo courtesy VandorenTV The concert will be conducted by Artistic Director of the St. Petersburg House of Music, People's Artist of Russia, Professor Sergei Roldugin. The artists will perform Fantasy on Themes from Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi for clarinet and piano, composed in 1851 by Luigi Bassi; three pieces for clarinet solos composed by Igor Stravinsky; First Rhapsody for clarinet and piano composed by Claude Debussy; and Fantasiestucke op.73 by Robert Schumann. Kuznetsov has won various Russian musical contests, while Vovchenko, who was born in Uzbekistan, has won many prizes at international contests. In the framework of the Embassy of Musical Mastery programme, the concerts are organised by St. Petersburg Music House in collaboration with Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Hanoi. The programme is held to mark the 85th birthday of Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, the first human to journey into outer space in 1961. Its one among various cultural and educational activities to mark 2019 as the Russian Year in Vietnam and the Vietnamese Year in Russia. The St. Petersburg Music House was established in 2006 by the Russian Ministry of Culture. It aims to promote classical music, revive performance traditions and support the most talented young Russian musicians. The House offers performances on the best concert venues, master-classes given by outstanding masters and performances abroad. The programmes will take place today at Vietnam National Academy of Music, 77 Hao Nam Street, Hanoi and tomorrow at the Conservatory of HCM City, 112 Nguyen Du Street, HCM City. Free entrance. TNG has set the target of 15 per cent annual growth in 2019-2024 Before the annual shareholders meeting of TNG is organised on April 21, the company's Board of Directors released the target of an annual increase of 15 per cent in both revenue and profit for the next five years, 1.5 times higher than the previous plan for 2018-2022. In 2018, TNG reported a revenue of VND3.61 trillion ($156.96 million) and after-tax profit of VND181 billion ($7.87 million), signifying increases of 45 and 57 per cent on-year, respectively. This year, the company expects to acquire VND4.15 trillion ($180.4 million) in revenue and VND208 billion ($9.04 million) in after-tax profit. As of now, TNG signed contracts for orders until September this year. If the company maintains its current growth speed, it may reach VND4.5 trillion ($195.65 million) in revenue. Along with existing customers like Zara, Mango, GAP, and CK, the company has signed with names like G-III from the US, Imperal from Canada, and Chois from South Korea. According to CEO Nguyen Van Thoi, there are massive orders from the US and Canada, opening opportunities for local garment and textile enterprises, including TNG, to select the most promising customers to create more added value. TNGs export turnover to the US makes up more than 50 per cent of the companys total export turnover, while the runner up is Europe with 45 per cent. The CPTPP also opens massive opportunities for TNG to approach new markets like Japan and Singapore, while simultaneously reinforcing its presence in Canada. TNG has advantages in export tax because it is transferring to Freight on Board (FOB) operations. Besides, the company imports materials from CPTPP member countries, thus, its products ensure the yard forward requirement, Thoi added. The company currently has 11 garment facilities and two garment production auxiliary facilities with a total of 220 sewing lines. The number of sewing lines is expected to increase to 250 units by 2020. Besides, the company plans to decrease CMT (Cut, Make & Trim) product volume and simultaneously increase the proportion of FOB production, leading to an increase in the gross profit margin. In addition, TNG has been paying more attention to the original design manufacturing (ODM) activities of the TNG Fashion brand to increase the gross profit margin of this operation segment by 30-40 per cent. Thoi said that TNG has adopted numerous solutions to improve the quality and capacity of its products, including building detailed manufacturing and business plans, hiring foreign experts, and motivating employees to improve their performance. Besides, the company invested in technology and machinery. In 2018 alone, the company recruited 2,400 employees. Vietnam is the second largest export partner of the US in garment and textiles, with a market share of 13.2 per cent, just behind China with 36 per cent. Vietnam Expo 2019 features around 600 booths of businesses from 23 countries and territories. VNS Photo Linh Anh The four-day event, themed Networking and Sharing for Mutual Success, includes the attendance of enterprises from provinces and cities of Vietnam and 23 countries and territories, including Algeria, Cuba, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea and China. Vietnam Expo is hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and organised annually by the Vietnam National Trade Fair & Advertising Company (Vinexad) over the last two decades, and is recognised as one of the most effective trade events, bringing about a lot of economic values for organisations, enterprises and individuals in Vietnam and overseas. At the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said the event, first held in 1991, has become one of the biggest and most important trade promotion activities of the industry and trade sector. The expo has brought multiple economic values and opportunities helping Vietnamese firms boost exports and develop the domestic market, contributing to the realisation of the Governments commitment to enhancing international economic integration, Hai told Vietnam News. One highlight at Vietnam Expo 2019 is the participation of enterprises whose brands are honoured with the Vietnam Value title the symbol of prestige and quality for Vietnamese brands in the domestic market as well as brand development in the international market. They include Vietnam Electrical Equipment JSC GELEX, Tran Phu Electrical Mechanical JSC, Binh Minh Plastics JSC, Duy Tan Plastics JSC, Tan A Dai Thanh Group, Hanoi Beer Trading JSC, Da Nang Rubber JSC and Hanoi Trade Corporation. Duong Thi Uyen Thao, Business Development Director of Tan Plastics JSC, told Vietnam News that the event offers the company opportunities to meet with new partners as well as boosting the development of export activities. Kim Ki Joon, chairman of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA)s Southeast Asia and Oceania and general director of KOTRA Hanoi, told Vietnam News this year was the 21st year the Republic of Korea has attended the event. This year, South Korea presents the largest number of attending firms. There are some 150 South Korean companies with 160 booths participating in the event. Over the years, the number of Korean enterprises attending has increased, proving that Korean enterprises are increasingly interested in the Vietnamese market and wishing to strengthen co-operation with Vietnamese businesses, Kim Ki Joon said. Design sharing pavilion A Korea-Vietnam Design Sharing Pavilion is also one of the events highlights. The booth displays designs to serve customers under a programme titled Korea-Vietnam Design Sharing, co-ordinated by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) and the Korea Institute of Design Promotion, which has been in operation since 2010 and provided support for 3,500 companies. According to Nguyen Thi Hong Van, director of the Market Research and Development Department under Vietrade, this exercise has provided consultancy for Vietnamese enterprises in enhancing design capability, branding and packaging, researching market demands and developing marketing ideas. This years booth showcases the products of seven companies including three Vietnamese ones, namely VinaTea JSC, Luong Quoi Coconut Processing Co Ltd and Quang Ninh Seafood Trading And Production Co Ltd, together with four Korean Enterprises of DITOBRAND, MASS C&G, Kimhyunsun DESIGN and MOT. Investors at Vietnam Investment Securities Company (IVS). Vietnamese shares traded quietly on Thursday morning as investors were too cautious to buy stocks amid the lack of supportive information. The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange inched up 0.13 per cent to close at 983.23 points. The benchmark VN-Index moved quietly in the early trading session as investors held on to cash and waited for the difficult period to end after the market recorded a two-day fall of 1.57 per cent. Low market sentiment resulted in modest trading liquidity with more than 64 million shares being traded on the southern stock exchange, worth VND1.18 trillion (US$50.6 million). The market breadth was slightly positive with 138 gaining stocks and 117 decliners. In the large-cap VN30 basket, half of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation advanced, while nine slid. The large-cap VN30-Index gained firmly by 0.12 per cent to 894.27 points at the end of the morning session. Among companies with smaller market value, GTN Foods surged 6.9 per cent after Viet Capital Securities (VCSC) said in its Wednesday report that the State Securities Commission had approved dairy producer Vinamilk's purchase of a 46.68 per cent stake in GTN Foods. If the deal is completed, Vinamilk will increase its ownership in GTN Foods to 49 per cent. On March 23, GTN Foods' board of directors rejected Vinamilks offer. Vinamilk shares edged up 0.6 per cent on Thursday morning. On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index increased by 0.10 per cent to end at 107.53 points. The northern market index lost a total 1.37 per cent in the previous two sessions. Nearly 12 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND154 billion. The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm. A group of activists working to protect Prey Lang, one of the last remaining lowland evergreen woodlands in Southeast Asia, is hoping that new funding can help avert the constant threat of illegal loggers and poachers. The activists and communities in Prey Lang rely on the forest to support their livelihoods and fear that continued encroachment on the woodland will further deplete their income. Phai Bunleang, 56, a Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) activist in Kratie province, says he hopes more money can be sought from the government and non-governmental groups. Smugglers always get money immediately after they cut down a tree. But we farmers work hard [to protect the forest] and we dont even have enough to feed the family, he said. Activists from three other provinces bordering Prey Lang share the same experience and concerns. Anti-logging efforts by the PLCN are largely self-funded. Phouk Bunhong, 44, a PLCN activist in Preah Vihear province, said she was upset that funders continued to overlook the group. Our community catches illegal loggers every day, but we never get any money or even gas subsidies. I get nothing. I am quite disappointed. Im not asking for much, just some gasoline would be enough. According to PLCN, about 250,000 people live in the Prey Lang region. They estimate the forest is home to about 500 animal and plant species. About 11,000 hectares of forest was clear-cut in 2016 and more than 2,000 illegal logging cases reported. Last week, USAID partnered with the environment ministry to launch the Sustainable and Effective Management of Prey Lang Extended Landscape program. Matthew Edwardsen, USAID Green Prey Lang chief party, said a solution must be found before it was too late. I think it is concerning because there is only one Prey Lang, you know. If the logging continues, the forest will disappear. Not only is that forest critical for the community that lives around that forest, but it is a key watershed for all of Cambodia. It feeds the Tonle Sap. It feeds the Mekong. USAID Green Prey Lang is a five-year project that works to promote resilient, low-emission development and inclusive sustainable management through a focus on communities, conservation and improved governance in priority protected areas that include Prey Lang, Preah Roka, and Chhaeb, according to the group. Sao Sopheap, secretary of state of Ministry of Environment, said he hoped the project would improve the lives of community members. I hope that this project will continue to cut down offenses in the protected area, especially Prey Lang, he said. Uganda's Rwandan community has marked the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, which saw over hundreds of thousands of people killed over a 100 days of ethnic majority Hutus targeting minority Tutsis. Many Tutsis fled to neighboring countries like Uganda. The Rwandan Students Association at Ugandas Makerere University re-enacted the bloody events that began in April 1994 by performing a play. They sang songs to remember the dead and to keep their memory alive. Rwandas ethnic majority Hutus genocidal campaign against minority Tutsis left over 800,000 people dead in just over three months. Ten of those killed were Jackline Uwamwizas relatives, who dismissed her pleas that they join her in fleeing Rwanda. And I was calling them, asking them, please, please go away, go to Burundi, people are waiting for you at the borders of Burundi, please go, please go. But they were not believing that this will happen. And one day I called again, as I was doing it every day, and the phone was not responding, Uwamwiza recalled. Uganda has been a haven to fleeing Tutsis since the 1959 Rwandan Revolution, which changed Rwanda from a Belgian colony with a Tutsi monarchy to a free, Hutu-ruled republic. It was from Uganda where now President Paul Kagames Rwandan Patriotic Front launched attacks against Hutu forces, fueling civil war but also ending the genocide. On Sunday, Ugandans and Rwandans honored those killed in the genocide. They lit candles and vowed such bloodshed would never happen again. But Rwandas ambassador to Uganda, Frank Mugambagye, also stressed that a quarter century later - some wanted culprits are still free. The arrest warrants have been issued but, indeed, in some cases, quite many cases, they have not been pursued. Efforts must therefore be made to expose the suspects so that justice and fighting impunity is realized, Mugambagye said. Rwandan elders in Uganda worry that without this annual tribute, Rwandan youth, who have no memory of the genocide, may one day forget. George Bazatoha, a student at Makerere University born in Uganda after his family fled the Rwandan Revolution, said the memorial was vital for his generation. It gives me a spirit of loving my country and loving my fellow munywarwanda, my tribemate, without considering whether hes Hutu, or Tutsi or Twa, Bazatoha said. For Rwandans in Uganda, the ethnic and power conflicts that drove them out of their country, and led to the 1994 genocide, are tragedies they hope never to see repeated. Plans are on track for a high-speed rail network connecting the continent's borders by 2063, the African Union's Development Agency says. The ambitious multibillion-dollar project aims to ease the movement of goods and people across African borders, but the AU warns that corruption could derail that goal. Road, rail, and air traffic connections are so poor between some African countries that it is better to transit through Europe than to travel directly between neighbors. Intra-African trade is less than 15% of total trade, says Adama Deen, the head of infrastructure at the AU's Development Agency. "You cannot have integration without connectivity, whether it is road or rail connectivity, especially when we are talking about the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, where you need a single market and connectivity to move goods, persons within the market," Deen said. During a two-day meeting this week in Nairobi, AU experts discussed linking all African capitals and commercial centers through a high-speed rail network by 2063. The Africa Integrated High Speed Network would ease the movement of goods, people and services across African borders by building on and improving existing national railways to link Africa's 54 countries, constructing at least 12,000 kilometers of new tracks. The aim is for 20% of the pilot phase to be completed in the next four years, says the technical committee's Cleopatra Shiceka Ntshingila. "In terms of the pilots that we have looked at which ones can readily work in terms based on existing infrastructure, existing studies. And this is why we will take it one tranche at a time, and that is why we think we will have at least one project up and running," she said. Six corridors have been designated for connecting Africa by high-speed rail. Three of them include linking Kenya's Mombasa port city to Uganda's capital, Kampala; South Africa's Durban to Botswana's Gaborone; and the Ivory Coast's Abidjan to Burkina Faso's Ouagadougou. China's role In the past five years, Chinese loans have funded Kenya's first phase of the railway from Mombasa to Nairobi and from landlocked Ethiopia to Djibouti. But critics say Chinese loans are risking state assets and saddling African nations with heavy debts that Beijing can use for political leverage. The CEO for the AU Development Agency in Kenya, Daniel Osiemo, says the continent should look to funding from within. "For example, look at the pension funds, all over the continent we have pension funds that have been established, but which have not been channeled to productive investments," he said. "So, if these are harnessed and put into this kind of investments, in a little time to come, they will be able to pay everybody. It will be a win-win for everybody." But Osiemo says there are other challenges to meet the 2063 railway goal. "Then there are political challenges, you know Central African Republic, South Sudan political instability to work in such countries requires extra effort at the highest level to have these corridors facilitated and the links established." Corruption AU High Representative for Infrastructure Development, former Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga, worries corruption could be the project's biggest obstacle. "I will you give an example of railway, you go to Ethiopia and the rates are different, you go to Nigeria they are different, you come to Kenya, you go to Tanzania they are different yet you find that the same companies [are] doing them. That has a lot to do with investment environment in those countries and this is an enemy of Africa, which must be fought," he said. How many of those battles are won will determine just how quickly Africa's first cross-continental, high-speed train rolls out of the station. U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally who appears to have won his fifth term as Israeli prime minister in a tight parliamentary election, saying that Netanyahu's victory would be good for peace. The Trump administration has said it will unveil a Middle East peace plan after this election. Little is known about the plan and whether it will be accepted by the Palestinians. Here's more from White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara. A new Trump administration regulation set to go into effect Friday directs military secretaries to kick out transgender service members who refuse to serve in their birth sex and "given an opportunity to correct those deficiencies." The American Medical Association told The Associated Press on Thursday the policy and its wording mischaracterizes transgender people as having a "deficiency" and defies science by classifying the need to transition to another gender among "administratively disqualifying conditions" that include those the Pentagon has labeled as a "congenital or developmental defects." The new regulation strips transgender troops of rights they only recently secured under the Obama administration to serve openly and receive care if they choose to transition to another gender. The Defense Department said its use of the word "deficiencies" is military lingo for when an individual fails to meet standards to maintain a lethal force. It is not a reference to gender dysphoria, a condition of extreme distress from not identifying with one's biological gender, Lt. Col. Carla Gleason said. The department says transgender people can serve if they remain in their biological sex. "The only thing deficient is any medical science behind this decision," American Medical Association President Dr. Barbara L. McAneny said. 'Disparaging and derogatory' Decorated Army helicopter pilot Lindsey Muller was a plaintiff in one of four lawsuits that tried to block the policy from taking effect. But the final legal injunction was lifted in March, though new legal challenges are expected. Muller said she and other transgender troops feel demoralized. "Under our ethical standards, we can't say anything derogatory against the administration, while we are being presented in a disparaging and derogatory light," said Muller, 37, who is based in Fort Carson, Colorado. Troops like Muller, who began openly identifying as a woman in 2016, are worried they will be discharged. The administration says it will not boot current service members who transitioned before the Pentagon issued its directive, though the government has also said it retains the right to eliminate that protection. Muller said the policy will cost the armed forces far more in terms of losing experienced personnel like herself and training replacements than any costs associated with specialized health care for trans service members. She plans to retire from the military next year after serving 20 years. Discharge policy Under the new policy, a service member can be discharged based on a diagnosis of gender dysphoria if he or she is "unable or unwilling to adhere to all applicable standards, including the standards associated with his or her biological sex, or seeks transition to another gender." It said the discharge should come after an individual "has been formally counseled on his or her failure to adhere to such standards and has been given an opportunity to correct those deficiencies." The policy calls for troops diagnosed with gender dysphoria to be medically evaluated before discharging them to see if they qualify as having a disability. Otherwise gender dysphoria can be considered a "condition that interferes with military service" like sleep walking, bed wetting, motion sickness, and personality disorders. 'Total disrespect' "They can dress it up in whatever words they want, but when you carefully look at this it's total disrespect for these human beings by saying a core piece of them is not acceptable," former acting U.S. Army Surgeon General Gale Pollock said. Pollock signed a statement with two former U.S. surgeons general and two other former military surgeons general, saying they are "troubled by the Defense Department's characterization of the need to undergo gender transition as a 'deficiency,' and by the addition of gender dysphoria to official lists of 'congenital or developmental defects' that include bed-wetting and 'disturbances of perception, thinking, emotional control, or behavior."' An estimated 14,700 troops identify as transgender. Military chiefs testified before Congress last year that they found no problems with transgender troops on morale or unit cohesion. Many have received medals since the armed forces welcomed them in 2016. Transgender troops say the regulation mirrors the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibited gay men and women from serving openly in the armed forces before Congress repealed it in 2010. Although much of the reporting about the coming U.S.-China trade deal has focused on the challenge that lingering tariffs and follow-up enforcement presents to a potential agreement, one obstacle has been given less attention to the threat it could pose to the ruling Communist Party of China. Analysts say that even if and when a deal is reached, China's communist leaders will find it extremely difficult to convince party cadres, local industries and the public of the merits of a deal. The United States sees its decision to impose severe tariffs on Chinese goods as an attempt to press Beijing to reduce the trade deficit and ensure a level playing field for its trade and investments. But in China, the 9-month-old trade war is seen more as an attempt by Washington to force Beijing to accept an unequal deal. The Chinese media have painted a different picture portraying Washington as a bully that is trying to contain a rising competitor. View from China From the Chinese point of view, "it sounds like the U.S. is trying to impose an unequal treaty on China, which reminds many in China of the 'Century of Humiliation' when the declining Qing Dynasty had to accept unequal treaties imposed on China by foreign powers," said Zhiqun Zhu, a political science professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. Accepting something perceived as an unequal treaty would be seen in China as a sign of weakness. "I think it will be politically dangerous if the CPC does not put up a strong resistance (to Washington) and seek a fairer deal with the U.S.," he said. Since July 2018, the two countries have been engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war that has resulted in losses worth billions of dollars to businesses across the globe. The two sides have held nine rounds of intense talks for a deal to end the trade war, but the outcome of the negotiations remains uncertain. Challenge for Communists For the rank and file of China's Communist cadres, there is an expectation Chinese leadership will match the United States in political strength and negotiation capability. Some even see the trade war as a tussle between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. "The U.S. demand that China genuinely move toward a market economy is a challenge for any CCP leadership, but is particularly the case for a China led by Xi Jinping," said Scott Kennedy, deputy director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. That is equally challenging because under Xi Jinping's leadership, China has moved backward in terms of market reforms, Kennedy said. "Previous CCP leaders have adopted policies less inimical to markets, and they did not see marketization as a vital threat to CCP rule the way Xi Jinping apparently does," he said. U.S. reports suggest Washington wants to craft the deal in a way China cannot deviate from it, leaving no future room for Beijing to impose counter-measures like tariff increases on American business. The Trump administration has imposed tariffs worth hundreds of billions of dollars on Chinese goods. Washington appears to be negotiating from a point of strength as China has exhausted its ability to impose counter tariffs on American products. The U.S. is asking China to address old concerns like industrial subsidies, technology transfer, and intellectual property rights. Accepting these demands would impose a heavy financial burden on Chinese industry because it will result in costly restructuring and an increase in product prices. Price increases can in turn affect China's exports. Questions are being asked whether the United States will find a way to make sure the deal is implemented at the factory and trade levels across China. Deal or no deal, the situation in China is unlikely to change, said Fraser Howie, author of the book Red Capitalism. "China will pay lip service to much of what is being discussed, sign a weak deal, buy some stuff, approve some deals in the short term, but longer term China will be pursuing Made in China 2025, they will be stealing IP (intellectual property) where they can, and they will be treating foreign companies differently as much as they can," he said. Party vs. US relations The worst to be hit will be state-owned enterprises that thrive on government subsidies and preferential policies. State support for enterprises is the cornerstone of the Chinese economy and the foundation power at the local level, analysts note. And restructuring heavily staffed state-owned enterprises is likely to result in large scale unemployment and throw up another political challenge for the party. "If they (Chinese leaders) don't make the concessions necessary for a deal it will only be because the Chinese leadership has determined that maintaining the place of SOEs and special interests is more important than an amicable relationship with the United States," Kennedy said. In the end, the importance of the one-party system matters a lot more to China than its relations with the United States or Western ideas of the free market. "China is run by a Leninist dictatorship which has made no secret of the importance of the party as the core of the society and economy," Howie said. Less than a month before Donald Trump was elected as the U.S. president in 2016, he said, "WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks," as the anti-secrecy group released another cache of emails hacked by Russian operatives from the computers of Democratic officials that were damaging to Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. "Boy, I love reading those WikiLeaks," Trump said four days before the election. But on Thursday, the Justice Department that is part of Trump's administration accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of conspiring in 2010 with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to disclose hundreds of thousands of confidential military records from the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 secret State Department cables. Assange was arrested by British police in London Thursday, and unceremoniously hauled out of the Ecuadorian embassy where he had been living in asylum for nearly seven years. It was an arrest British authorities said was at the behest of the United States, which wants to put him on trial on the computer hacking charge, and possibly other allegations. The actions of the 47-year-old Assange, the one-time Australian hacker using his genius IQ to tap into the databases of high-profile organizations, have often been met with such conflicting assessments. Depending on what he has been disclosing over the last decade, he has been hailed as a champion of truth or vilified as a publicity seeker endangering lives of people by disclosing confidential information. Assange started WikiLeaks in 2006, but his first worldwide notoriety occurred four years later, with the release of the first documents Manning stole from U.S. government computers, with what U.S. prosecutors say was Assange's help to Manning to crack a password and gain access to the files. Some of the video footage WikiLeaks released captured the world's attention, showing U.S. soldiers killing 18 Iraqi civilians from a helicopter. In May 2012, the British Supreme Court ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault, accusations Assange has long denied and said were the result of consensual sexual relations with two women. A month later, he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, with the Quito government granting him asylum there. Sweden eventually dropped the assault investigation, but Assange remained at the embassy, fearing that if he walked out Britain, would detain and then extradite him to the U.S., which is what the U.S. is now trying to do. Britain had charged him with failing to surrender to a court in 2012 and said if he left the embassy, he would be arrested. Ecuador also grew weary of Assange's behavior at the diplomatic mission and his role in the disclosures of more documents, especially insider files from the Vatican released earlier this year, and granted British authorities the right to enter its compound on Thursday after he had spent nearly seven years there. Plainclothes officers grabbed Assange as he shouted in protest, "UK must resist!" and hustled him into a waiting police van. In parliament, to a round of cheers, British Prime Minister Theresa May said of Assange's arrest, "No one is above the law." Assange's lawyers say he will fight extradition to the U.S. Assange's U.S.-based attorney, Barry Pollack, criticized the Justice Department charges, saying they were "an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information." U.S. lawmakers on Thursday hailed the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Britain and urged his prompt extradition to face charges in the United States. "It's about time," Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told VOA. "I'm glad he'll finally get brought to justice." "Thank God," West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said. "This is needed, very much needed. I'm very thankful for our friends in the U.K." Assange was taken into custody after Ecuador ended his extended asylum at the country's embassy in London. In the United States, he stands accused of taking part in a computer hacking conspiracy that led to a treasure trove of classified information divulged on WikiLeaks. The website also published a massive number of emails hacked from 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign, a fact stressed by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. "He should be extradited and face justice here," Blumenthal said. "Justice should come to Julian Assange for his role in Russian meddling in our election, and the sooner the better." The U.S. Justice Department has charged Assange with conspiracy to illegally seize sensitive data from a U.S. government computer, calling the incident "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States." The Australian-born WikiLeaks executive has cast himself as a whistleblower, a portrayal his attorney sought to underscore. "This precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States," lawyer Jennifer Robinson told reporters in London. On Thursday, Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union, sided with Assange in a speech. "While there is no First Amendment right to crack a government password, this indictment characterizes as part of a criminal conspiracy the routine and protected activities journalists often engage in as part of their daily jobs, such as encouraging a source to provide more information," he said. Reactions from lawmakers U.S. lawmakers rejected such assertions, noting Assange faces charges for tactics allegedly used to acquire material, not for the dissemination of it. "Stealing is still a crime. And conspiracy to steal is a crime, as well," Cornyn said. "I think in leaking he intended to do damage, because of who he was working with, or we assume he was working with," Manchin said. The West Virginia senator added that, unlike Assange, true whistleblowers try "to protect the people they work for and the institution." "Julian Assange has long professed high ideals and moral superiority," the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, whatever his intentions when he started WikiLeaks, what he's really become is a direct participant in Russian efforts to undermine the West and a dedicated accomplice in efforts to undermine American security." Warner added, "It is my hope that the British courts will quickly transfer him to U.S. custody so he can finally get the justice he deserves." Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse concurred. "Julian Assange has long been a wicked tool of Vladimir Putin and the Russian intelligence services," Sasse tweeted. "He deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison." Australias prime minister on Thursday called a May 18 election that will be fought on issues including climate change, asylum seekers and economic management. We live in the best country in the world, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters after advising the governor-general to authorize the election. But to secure your future, the road ahead depends on a strong economy. And thats why there is so much at stake at this election, he added. Morrisons conservative coalition is seeking a third three-year term. But Morrison is the third prime minister to lead a divided government in that time and only took the helm in late August. Short reign possible Opinion polls suggest his reign will become one of the shortest in the 118-year history of Australian prime ministers on election day. The polls suggest center-left opposition leader Bill Shorten will become the eighth prime minister since the country plunged into an extraordinary period of political instability in 2007. The election pits Shorten, a former labor union leader who has presented himself as the alternative prime minister for the past six years, and Morrison, a leader who the Australian public is still getting to know. Tough immigration policy Morrison is seen as the architect of Australias tough refugee policy that has all but stopped the people-smuggling traffic of boats from Southeast Asian ports since 2014. The policy has been condemned by human rights groups as an abrogation of Australias responsibilities as a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention. Morrisons first job in Prime Minister Tony Abbotts newly elected coalition government in 2013 was as minister for immigration and border protection. He oversaw the secretive military-run Operation Sovereign Borders. Asylum-seekers from the Middle East, Africa and Asia would typically disable or sink their boats when intercepted by patrol ships in waters north of Australia so that the Australian crews would have to rescue them rather than turn the boats away. Under the new regime, the asylum-seekers were placed in motorized life boats that were towed back to Indonesia. The life boats had just enough fuel to reach the Indonesian coast. The Indonesian government complained the policy was an affront to Indonesian sovereignty. The government has also maintained a policy adopted in the final months of a Labor government in 2013 of sending boat arrivals to camps on the Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Those who attempt to reach Australia by boat are told they will never be allowed to settle there. Morrison remains proud of virtually stopping people-smuggler boat traffic. He has a trophy shaped like a people-smugglers boat in his office inscribed with I Stopped These. Labor's immigration approach Labor has promised to maintain the policy of banishing boat arrivals to the islands. But Labor says it would give priority to finding permanent homes for the asylum-seekers who have languished in island camps for years. The conservative coalition argues that the boats would start coming again because a Labor government would soften the regime. The government introduced temporary protection visas for boat arrivals so that refugees face potential deportation every three years if the circumstances that they fled in their homelands improve. Labor would give refugees permanent visas so that they have the certainty to plan their lives. Climate change Climate change policy is a political battlefield in a country that is the worlds largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas and has been one of the worlds worst greenhouse gas emitters on a per capita basis because of its heavily reliance on coal-fired power generation. Disagreement over energy policy has been a factor in the last six changes of prime minister. Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced a carbon tax in 2012. Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott scrapped it two years later. The coalition is torn between lawmakers who want polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions and those who reject any measures that would increase household power bills. The government aims to reduce Australian greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030. Labor has promised a more ambitious target of a 45% reduction in the same time frame. Action on climate change was a major priority for votes when conservative Prime Minister John Howards reign ended after more than 11 years at an election in 2007. Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd immediately signed up to the U.N.s 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions. Australia and the United States had been the only industrialized countries to hold out. Climate change dropped down the list of Australian priorities after the global financial crisis hit. But after Australians sweltered through a record hot summer and grappled with devastating drought, global warming has become a high-priority issue for voters again. The government warns that Labors emissions reduction plan would wreck the economy. Economy an issue The coalition also argues that Labor would further damage the economy with its policy of reducing tax breaks for landlords as real estate prices fall in Australias largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne. Morrison boasts that the conservative administration Prime Minister Howard led delivered 10 annual surplus budgets and paid off all federal government debt before the government changed at the 2007 election. Rudd had planned a budget surplus in his governments first fiscal year, but the global financial crisis struck. Many economists congratulate Rudd for keeping the Australian economy out of recession through stimulus spending. The coalition has accused Labor of spending too much and sinking Australia too deep in debt. But debt has continued to mount since the conservatives regained the reins in 2013. But opinion polls suggest voters consider the conservatives to be better economic managers. The government brought forward its annual budget blueprint by a month to April 2 and revealed a plan to balance Australias books in the next fiscal year for the first time in 12 years. Labor also promised to deliver a surplus budget in the year starting July 1, but it has yet to detail how it will achieve this goal. Free cancer treatment Labor has also promised to spend an additional AU$2.3 billion ($1.6 billion) over four years on covering treatment costs of cancer patients. Its an attractive offer with half Australias population expected to be diagnosed with some form of the disease in their lifetimes. The conservatives have largely taken credit for Australias remarkable run of 28 years of economic growth since its last recession under Labors rule. Morrison hopes that voters will look to him to deliver a sequel to the Howard years when a mining boom delivered ever-increasing budget surpluses. British officials say the United States submited a formal extradition request for Julian Assange, who was arrested in London by British police after officers were invited into the embassy of Ecuador to detain the WikiLeaks founder. Britains Home Secretary, Sajid Javid tweeted shorty after the arrest, Nearly seven years after entering the Ecuadorian embassy, I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK. He added, No one is above the law. Assange, who took refuge in the embassy in 2012 while on bail in Britain over sexual assault allegations against him in Sweden, had become an increasingly unwelcome guest. Last month, Assange's internet access was cut off and he was forbidden from receiving visitors. London Metropolitan police said they had a duty to execute a warrant for his breach of bail conditions more than seven years ago, and they were invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadorian governments withdrawal of asylum. A police statement said he was "further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities." The 47-year-old Assange, sporting a unkempt white beard, waving a finger and shouting, was seen being carried out of the embassy by seven plain-clothes police officers and hauled into a police van. Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy while he was on bail as his lawyers mounted a legal action aimed at preventing him from being extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations. He claimed if deported to Sweden, the United States would seek his extradition to face charges relating to WikiLeakss publication of hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and other classified documents. U.S. State and Justice Department officials have never officially confirmed Assange has been charged with any offenses. But in November a clerical error in the court filing of a document in a case unrelated to his suggested criminal charges may have have been prepared. Legal analysts said the error was likely caused by prosecutors copying and pasting from sealed documents. Rumors of Ecuadors likely withdrawal of asylum circulated last week. WikiLeaks claimed a senior source in Ecuador's state department had warned the hacking organization Assange would be evicted from the embassy. Ecuador's minister of foreign affairs Jose Valencia denied the claim. Behind the scenes, British, U.S. and Ecuadorian diplomats have been in negotiations. Britain and Ecuador sought assurances from Washington that if Assange stands trial in the United States he wont face the death penalty, says an official privy to the discussions. Following Assange's arrest, Britains Europe minister Alan Duncan said, It is absolutely right that Assange will face justice Duncan acknowledged there had been extensive dialogue" about Assanges fate leading up to the arrest. Ecuador President Lenin Moreno tweeted, In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols. The Ecuadorian leader had been deeply offended, say his aides, by WikiLeaks posting leaked Vatican documents. Key people in WikiLeaks visited Assange before and after the posting of the Vatican documents, Moreno complained. Last October, Ecuadors leader ordered Assange to refrain from making political statements that jeopardized Ecuador's relations with other countries. Assange then sued in the Ecuadorian courts for a breach of his human rights, but his legal action failed. In December, he was required pay for his food, medical care, and laundry. In a formal statement the Ecuadorian leader said, I announce that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable. WikiLeaks complained on Twitter, Ecuador has illegally [sic] terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. Assange arrest will likely trigger weeks and possibly months of court action, if the United States pursues his extradition. Two years ago Sweden rescinded its arrest warrant, but Swedish prosecutors have said that the case remained open. Coal-powered plants, mobile networks, major bridges, roads and railways: Chinese investments have been booming throughout Central and Eastern Europe's cash-strapped developing countries, even as European Union officials scramble to counter Beijing's mounting economic and political influence on the continent. EU member Croatia is hosting a summit Thursday between China and 16 regional countries - the 8th so far - that focuses on expanding business and other links between China and the region, which Beijing sees as a gateway into Europe. The gathering in Dubrovnik of the so-called 16+1 initiative consists of Central and Eastern European countries that have endorsed China's ambitious global "Belt and Road'' investment project, which has triggered concerns among some key EU states about increased Chinese political and economic clout in the region. China has already invested billions of dollars in various infrastructure projects in Central and Eastern Europe. Western leaders worry that further investment in the states that are EU members - or those hoping to join - could mean lower environmental and other standards than those in the rest of the bloc. Thorny issues include the flouting of EU competition rules, potential over-borrowing by some of the states, the quality of constructions, and security concerns over high-speed 5G network technology supplied by Chinese companies. Critics also say that in return for allowing Chinese expansion into the region, Beijing should give better reciprocal access for European companies to Chinese markets. Top Chinese officials have sought to alleviate EU fears of unfair competition from Chinese state-controlled companies, which benefit from the government's financial backing. Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed during a recent visit to Paris to work with European leaders to seek fairer international trade rules. Of the 16 participating countries - Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia - 11 are EU member states, and the remaining five want to join. Beijing has marketed its expanding initiative as a way to give some of Europe's neediest countries a financial boost, helping them gain access to more trade and investment. That has been mostly welcomed by the Central and Eastern European nations. Linda Tjia, an expert on Chinese development strategy at the City University of Hong Kong, said there is no evidence to support concerns that Beijing is harboring "neo-colonial'' goals to exploit Eastern Europe, Africa and other developing economies. European leaders "have to somehow show their people they are trying to protect national interests,'' Tija said. Major Chinese-led infrastructure projects in the region include a planned high-speed railway from the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to Belgrade in neighboring Serbia. The line will link up with the Chinese- controlled port of Piraeus in Greece as an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe. The project has drawn scrutiny from the EU because Chinese state-owned banks would provide financing, and Chinese companies would supply technology and the actual building. That conflicts with EU rules requiring public works to be broken into segments small enough to attract multiple bidders. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose own government often has been criticized for anti-democratic policies, says Hungary's relations with China should be based on "mutual respect.'' Hungary last year did not sign an EU report criticizing China's human rights record and business policies. In Serbia, an EU membership candidate, Chinese companies are building major bridges and highways. They are also constructing a large coal-powered electricity plant even as China is trying to curb pollution at home by implementing renewable energy projects and reducing the use of lignite, by far the most polluting fossil fuel. Serbian analyst Mijat Lakicevic said the strategically-located Balkan country situated between East and West is a perfect place where ``China can realize its economic concept, the way it wants to enter (Eastern European) markets,'' without much concern over fair bidding processes or pollution standards. Bosnia, a potential EU candidate, is at odds with the bloc over its decision to issue a public guarantee for a 600-million euro ($676 million) loan from China's Export-Import Bank to expand Bosnia's largest coal-fired power plant. EU's energy watchdog has warned that the move could eventually harm Bosnia's bid to join the EU because the agreement violates EU's subsidy and environment rules. Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn has said the issue "raises serious questions'' about the Balkan country's "commitment to international treaties (and) European rules.'' Chinese companies are also involved in the construction of a $380-million Peljesac bridge in Croatia, which links two coastal parts over the Adriatic Sea, as well as a highway linking the Adriatic in Montenegro to neighboring Serbia. In the Czech Republic, the National Cyber and Information Security Agency followed U.S. authorities' warning against the use of hardware or software made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE. That, however, did not change Czech President Milos Zeman's positive stance toward Huawei. Zeman publicly criticized the Czech watchdog, saying it harms the Czech Republic's business interests as it could affect Huawei's plan to invest $370 million in 5G networks in the Czech Republic. U.S. officials mounted an international campaign to keep Huawei gear out of any foreign 5G network that might carry sensitive U.S. intelligence. China's President Xi Jinping received his first-ever foreign honorary doctorate, in engineering, Thursday from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. University officials praised the powerful leader for his contributions to engineering and for what they called his world vision, but critics question the move. China-Africa scholar David Monyae, who directs the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg, was part of the academic group that presented the degree to Xis ambassador to South Africa on Thursday. Monyae said the faculty Senate debated at length before voting to bestow the honor, and came up with three reasons for the decision. One, it has to do with the advancement that has been made, or continuously being made, in China. That is, lifting 800 million people from poverty, something Africa is grappling with," he told VOA. "No. 2, it has to do with cutting-edge technology and the move to the fourth industrial revolution, a movement that the University of Johannesburg is on its own mission to become a fourth industrial revolution-foremost university on the continent. And No. 3, I think, it has to do with the manner in which China is handling issues of development. Does the Chinese leader who last year scrapped term limits, essentially allowing him to govern for life deserve the honor? His government has also faced criticism for exploiting African governments with crippling loans, and for allegedly abusing workers in Africa. William Gumede, chairman of the Democracy Works Foundation in Johannesburg, said this degree could give the Chinese leader a boost he may not deserve. They are under criticism about involvement in Africa. Globally, they are under criticism," he told VOA. "So this, I guess, would be almost an affirmation of the Chinese president, of his role in Africa. And the Chinese Communist Party can go back to the Chinese people and say, 'Look, no, we are valued in Africa.' So, I think there is going to be a whole lot of political capital expounded on this degree. Monyae said the faculty Senate was well aware of these issues. He noted this is not the first time the university has made a controversial choice in granting such an honor. President Barack Obama received one in 2013. When President Obama was given the honorary degree, issues of drone killings over Afghanistan were raised," Monyae said. "These issues were raised as well, as far as China was concerned; however, members of the Senate thought that as it stands, President Xi Jinping deserves the honorary degree. Monyae noted that the school also holds some leverage. If the faculty decides that Xi or his government has taken a wrong step or crossed an ethical line, the university wields the power to strip him of the honor, Monyae said. Africa-China analyst Cobus van Staden, who works at the University of the Witwatersrand, said its clear to him who stands to benefit from this honor and it's not Xi. I think the University of Johannesburg benefits, in the sense that they have in the past really positioned themselves as having official relationships with China. So, I think it places them on a more prominent position in China, and I assume it would also open up some collaboration opportunities for them in China. Hunter-gatherers in the Amazon sought in court on Thursday to stop Ecuador's government from auctioning their land to oil companies, as tension mounts over the future of the rainforest. In a lawsuit seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation which could set a precedent for other tribes opposed to drilling the Waorani said the government did not properly consult them in 2012 over plans to auction their land to oil companies. "We live on these lands and we want to continue to live there in harmony. We will defend them. Our fight is that our rights are respected," said Nemonte Nenquimo, a leader of the 2,000-strong Waorani. "Our fight is not just a fight about oil. This is a fight about different ways of living one that protects life and one that destroys life," said Nenquimo, from Pastaza province in the eastern Amazon. Ecuador's energy and environment ministries, the respondents in the case, and the nation's hydrocarbons secretary were not immediately available to comment. When President Lenin Moreno met Waorani leaders last year to hear their concerns, he said it was important to have a dialog and reach a consenus. Tensions have simmered between indigenous communities and oil companies in Ecuador since Texaco now Chevron began operations in the Amazon in the 1960s. Key step Ecuador is pushing to open up more rainforest and develop its oil and gas reserves in the hope of improving its sluggish economy and cutting its high fiscal deficit and foreign debt. The constitution gives the government the right to develop energy projects and extract minerals on any land, regardless of who owns it, but requires that communities are consulted first and are properly informed about any projects and their impact. Laws to regulate the consultation process have yet to be introduced, although the court case could push the government to do this, said Brian Parker, a lawyer with campaign group Amazon Frontlines, which is supporting the Waorani. "The lawsuit is to ensure that the processes enshrined in the constitution are carried through to guarantee the Waorani rights to prior consultation and their rights to territory," said Parker, who is based in Ecuador. "The fact that the Waoroni have a chance in court to be able to plead their case is in itself a very important step," he said, adding that a court victory would provide an "invaluable precedent" for other indigenous Amazonian tribes. The government announced last year that it had divided swaths of forest up into blocs for auction, one of which bloc 22 covers the Waorani's ancestral lands, raising the specter of pollution and an end to their way of life. Present for hearing Hundreds of Waorani and other indigenous peoples arrived in Ecuador's eastern city of Puyo to witness the court hearing, which is expected to include several days of oral testimony from Waorani leaders, with a decision in the next few weeks. Ecuadorians voted last year to give broad backing to limits on oil production and mining in environmentally sensitive areas, among other issues. In two landmark cases in 2018, local courts sided with indigenous communities who said the government had failed to inform them before designating their land for mineral exploitation. The Costa Rica based Inter-American Court of Human Rights also ruled in 2012 that Ecuador had violated its Sarayaku Amazonian community's right to prior consultation before drillers started exploration on their lands in the late 1990s. Within weeks of a mass shooting that killed 50 people at two Christchurch mosques, New Zealand has introduced legislation that would ban the type of guns used in the attacks. In first of three votes needed to enact the law, lawmakers almost unanimously voted to ban semiautomatic rifles and shotguns. Even though the measure has yet to be passed, Prime Minister Lucinda Ardern has already used her executive power to prevent sales of the banned weapons to keep people from stockpiling. In light of such quick measures, here is a look at the effect other mass shootings have had on gun laws around the world. AUSTRALIA In 1996, Martin Bryant, then 28, went on a killing spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania. He killed 35 people and wounded 23 others. Australia acted swiftly to enact the National Firearms Agreement, which banned the use of all semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and pump-action shotguns. It also mandated that all gun owners provide authorities with a reason for possessing a firearm, register all weapons with authorities and undergo safety training. Australia also instituted a gun buyback program that took more than 600,000 weapons out of private hands. BRITAIN In 1987, after unemployed laborer Michael Ryan, 27, used a copy of a Kalashnikov AK-47 to kill 16 people and then himself in Hungerford, England, Britain outlawed semiautomatic weapons and limited the sales of some types of shotguns. But the response was far greater after Thomas Hamilton, 43, used several handguns to kill 16 children and their teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland in 1996. The 1997 Firearms Act banned virtually all private citizens from owning handguns. The law also made it harder to own sporting rifles by demanding far-reaching background checks. The government also instituted a gun buyback program that took tens of thousands of firearms out of private hands. CANADA In 1989, Marc Lepine, 25, stormed a Montreal engineering school armed with a semiautomatic rifle and killed 14 female students. The violent act shocked a nation that already had tough restrictions on automatic weapons and handguns. Lawmakers reacted by passing laws requiring registration and licensing of all rifles and other long guns, which account for a majority of firearms in Canada. But it didnt last. The highly unpopular national gun registry was abolished in 2012. GERMANY In 2002, Robert Steinhauser, 19, a student expelled from a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt, returned to the school armed with a rifle and a handgun and killed 13 staff members, two students and a police officer before taking his own life. Within months, German lawmakers raised the legal age for carrying sporting weapons from 18 to 21 and made a psychiatric evaluation mandatory for gun buyers younger than 25. Another school shooting, in the southwest town of Winnenden in 2009, led to further legislation. Tim Kretschmer, 17, returned to his school and killed 15 people, including nine students, most of them female. Germany acted immediately to toughen its gun laws, including allowing police to spot-check the homes of gun owners and impose fines if weapons are not locked away. NORWAY In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, then 32, detonated a car bomb in Oslo, killing eight people and then used a semiautomatic rifle and a pistol to kill 69 people, mostly teens, at a youth summer camp organized by the Norwegian Labor Party on the island of Utoya. At the time, Norway already had strict gun laws on the books. But it has taken years for Norway to change its laws. Last year, Oslo announced plans to ban semiautomatic weapons by 2021 a decade after the massacre. UNITED STATES Like other countries, the U.S. passed some of its strictest gun laws after major acts of violence. In 1934, high-profile gangland crimes, such as the St. Valentines Day Massacre in Chicago that killed seven, prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign a law that required gun owners to register machine guns, short-barrel rifles and shotguns. It also imposed a $200 tax on transfers of those weapons. The same tax remains today. In 1968, the assassinations of President John Kennedy, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy saw the introduction of the Gun Control Act, which banned interstate shipments of weapons and ammunition to private individuals. It also prohibited the sale of guns to minors, felons, fugitives, drug addicts and mental incompetents. But in 1986, some of the restrictions were lifted, allowing dealers to sell firearms through the mail. The Brady Bill was named after James Brady, who as President Ronald Reagan's press secretary, was shot in the head during an assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981. The legislation required unlicensed gun buyers to undergo background checks from licensed businesses, but not during private transactions. Other shootings brought mixed legislative results. In response to a 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, in which Stephen Paddock, 64, killed 58 people and wounded more than 800 from his casino hotel room, the Trump administration banned the use of bump stocks, devices that let rifles fire like machine guns. The rapid-fire device was used by the gunman who killed 58 people and wounded more than 800 from his hotel room in a Las Vegas casino in 2017. The ban went into effect last month but is still being contested in the courts. In 2018, Nikolas Cruz, then 19, who had been expelled from a high school in Parkland, Florida, is accused of using an AR-15 assault rifle to kill 17 students and faculty. A year later, several states, including Florida, have passed gun control legislation in response. The Florida Legislature raised the age to purchase guns to 21 from 18, banned people legally judged mentally defective from buying a gun, and set up a system for law enforcement to take guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others. But other mass shootings resulted in little if any gun control legislation. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six staff members, renewed public debate of gun control measures, such as background checks on firearm sales, but Congress passed no major legislation related to the Connecticut shooting. Look at a list of the top four countries in Asia that could be hurt as Chinas economy slows down and its ongoing trade war with the United States heats up. Then look at a list of the top four countries in Asia that stand to benefit from these tensions and from the diversion of investment away from China. There is only one nation that shows up on both lists: Vietnam. Vietnam: trade war winner and loser That is right. Vietnam would be both one of the biggest trade winners and one of the biggest trade losers, depending on how much the current disruptions to global commerce further intensify. Moodys Investors Services has studied 23 countries all across the Asia Pacific and found that the four most likely to gain from the trade frictions are Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. And it found that the four most likely to suffer negative consequences are Hong Kong, Mongolia, Singapore and, again, Vietnam. That makes the trade war between China and the United States a dao hai luoi or a sword that cuts both ways for Vietnam. The Southeast Asian country has been searching for a way to cash in on the conflict, selling to the Americans whatever exports are harder for them to buy from China as a result of U.S. tariffs, and vice versa. But those benefits might be short term, whereas a protracted trade war between the planets two biggest economies could reduce trade around the globe overall. Analysts say that trade-reliant Vietnam needs to brace for such a scenario, and that more substantive, long-term reforms to its economy would help. Given the uncertain outlook for growth and trade policy, as well as generally tighter financing conditions, slower investment growth will amplify the trade slowdown, especially in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and Mongolia, said Christian de Guzman, a vice president and senior credit officer at Moodys Investors Services based in Singapore. U.S. President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products last summer, citing unfair trade practices from China. Beijing followed up promptly with its own retaliatory import taxes on U.S. goods. Government officials from both sides are supposed to be meeting this month to resolve the impasse, but observers are divided on the odds of an actual resolution. Future is not bright The trade war, combined with similar trade protectionism linked to the U.S. and spanning from Europe to Indonesia, raises the chances of economic instability globally, which does not bode well for Vietnam. As a small, open economy heavily dependent on external trade, an increase in protectionism and slower global trade would have significant knock-on effects for Vietnam, even if it is not the direct target of increased tariffs, Sian Fenner, a lead economist at Oxford Economics in Singapore, wrote in a forecast. Its dependence on foreign investor flows also makes it vulnerable to changing global sentiment. Real reforms needed While Hanoi cannot do much about other states policies, it has faced a number of recommendations to bolster itself at home. Advisers urge Vietnam to make real reforms to its economy, taking a long view on roadblocks that leave it vulnerable to trade tensions in the long run. For example the Vietnamese government should get serious about privatizing the plethora of state owned companies from which it has planned to divest for years, scholars Tuan Ho, Trang Thi Ngoc Nguyen, and Tho Ngoc Tran wrote in a joint report. They also suggested support for small businesses, such as through loans, and tougher screening of foreign investments to attract higher value, less polluting businesses. An annual report on provincial competitiveness points to corruption impeding business as well. The study last month, done in part by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, highlights Vietnams two main investment centers, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, as making the least progress on corruption. One other useful reform would be to continue moving toward the status of a market economy, including by scrapping subsidies on fuel, medical services and electricity, Ho, Nguyen and Tran said. But the academics are concerned that the government is focusing less on reform and more on trade deals and stability of the currency and economy. This is cause for worry that Vietnamese leaders may not be paying enough attention to domestic economic reforms in their strategy, they wrote in a journal by the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. In other words, the trade war may actually distract these leaders from moving further towards a market economy, and may see them focusing too much only on tactical solutions to maintain macro stability and increasing exports in the short term and neglecting radical economic reform as a means to revitalize long-term growth. The haunting image of a little girl crying helplessly as she and her mother are taken into custody by U.S. border officials won the prestigious 2018 World Press Photo of the Year Award on Thursday. Judges said veteran Getty photographer John Moore's picture taken after Honduran mother Sandra Sanchez and her daughter, Yanela, illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border last year showed "a different kind of violence that is psychological." The picture of the wailing toddler was published worldwide and caused a public outcry about Washington's controversial policy to separate thousands of migrants and their children. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials later said Yanela and her mom were not among those separated, but the public furor "resulted in President Donald Trump reversing the policy in June last year," the judges said. Moore was taking pictures of U.S. Border Patrol agents on a moonless night in the Rio Grande Valley on June 12 last year when they came across a group of people who tried to cross the border. Passing moment "I could see the fear on their faces, in their eyes," Moore told U.S.-based National Public Radio in an interview shortly afterward. As officials took their names, Moore said he spotted Sandra Sanchez and her toddler, who started wailing when her mom put her down to be searched. "I took a knee and had very few frames of that moment before it was over," said Moore, who had been covering the U.S.-Mexico border for a decade. At the awards ceremony in Amsterdam, Moore told AFP: "I wanted to tell a different story." "For me it was a chance to show a view of humanity that is often only related in statistics," the 51-year-old photographer said. "I think an issue like this, immigration issues, resonates not just in the United States, but around the world," Moore also told several hundred guests at the awards. The sensitive issue of immigration was further highlighted at Thursday's awards. Judges chose Dutch-Swedish photographer Pieter Ten Hoopen's images of the 2018 mass-migrant caravan to the U.S. border as its winner of the World Press Photo Story of the Year Award. 'Sense of dignity' Ten Hoopen's pictures, which show families and children as they made their way from Honduras in mid-October to the U.S. border, "showed a high sense of dignity," one of the judges said. Ten Hoopen thanked the migrant families, saying without them his award would not have been possible. Trump said Tuesday that he wouldn't resume separating children of undocumented migrants, but insisted that the policy did prevent people from illegal border crossings. His words came after he announced the departure Sunday of the official in charge of fighting illegal immigration, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. According to U.S. media reports, Trump's reshuffle could herald even harsher measures on the southern border. Judges selected this year's winners from 78,801 images entered by 4,738 photographers worldwide, the Amsterdam-based organizers said. France and Italy wrangled on Thursday over how best to tackle renewed conflict in Libya as a bid by eastern forces under Khalifa Haftar to seize Tripoli stalled in the face of strong resistance on the capital's southern outskirts. The United Nations said the fighting between Haftar's forces and troops under the internationally-backed Tripoli government had killed at least 56 people and forced 8,000 to flee their homes in the city in the last week. A Reuters reporter heard occasional heavy gunfire and explosions as the eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) faced off with forces of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj's government around the ex-international airport and the Ain Zara district. Officials brought families displaced by fighting on Tripoli's southern fringes to area schools. Red Crescent workers were heading out rations in one school as gunfire clattered in the distance. Haftar's push on Tripoli in Libya's northwest is the latest turn in a cycle of factional violence and chaos in Libya dating to the 2011 uprising that overthrew veteran dictator Muammar Gaddafi. After sweeping up from the south, LNA bogged down in Tripoli's southern suburbs 11 km (7 miles) from the city center. In Rome, Libya's former colonial ruler Italy warned France, which has good relations with Haftar, to refrain from supporting any one faction after diplomats said Paris had scuttled a European Union statement calling on him to halt his offensive. "It would be very serious if France for economic or commercial reasons had blocked an EU initiative to bring peace to Libya and would support a party that is fighting," Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini told Radio RTL 102.5. "As minister of the interior I will not stand by and watch." France, which has oil assets in eastern Libya, has provided military assistance in past years to Haftar in his eastern stronghold, Libyan and French officials say. It was also a leading player in the war to unseat Gaddafi. Italy supports the U.N.-backed government of Serraj. Italy spars with France "Some think that the [2011 Nato-led military intervention] in Libya promoted by [then-French President Nicolas] Sarkozy was triggered more by economic and commercial interests than by humanitarian concerns," Salvini said. "I hope we are not seeing the same film all over again." An EU draft statement on Wednesday said Haftar's attack on Tripoli put civilians at risk, disrupted normalization efforts and risked an escalation with serious consequences for Libya and the wider region. That statement was sidelined by France . French diplomatic sources said Paris did not object to calls on Haftar to halt his advance, but rather had only requested amendments including mentions of the plight of migrants in Libya and the presence in anti-Haftar forces of Islamist militants designated as terrorists by the United Nations. The latest tally of casualties from the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) said 56 people - mainly combatants though also some civilians including two doctors and an ambulance driver - had been killed, and another 266 wounded in Tripoli. In addition, 28 LNA soldiers had been killed and 92 wounded since the start of the offensive a week ago, according to the LNA. The number of people forced out of their homes by fighting rose to 8,075, the U.N. migration agency IOM said. As well as the humanitarian consequences, renewed conflict in Libya threatens to disrupt oil supplies, increase migration across the Mediterranean to Europe, scupper the U.N. peace plan for the country and encourage militants to exploit the chaos. Libya is a main transit point for migrants who have poured into Europe in recent years, mostly by trafficking gangs. The LNA forces swept out of their stronghold in eastern Libya to take the sparsely populated but oil-rich south earlier this year, before heading towards Tripoli, where Serraj's U.N.-backed government sits. Haftar was among the officers who helped Gaddafi seize power in a 1969 coup before parting ways with him later. But critics call Haftar another strongman in Gaddafi's mold. Haftar has resisted U.N. pressure to accept a power-sharing settlement to stabilize the country, using his leverage as a Western ally against militant Islam in North Africa. At least 1,000 people were killed when Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi in March. The cyclone's floodwaters swamped medical facilities, forcing people to either walk long distances for health care or go without. In Malawi, the U.N. Children's Fund has deployed mobile clinics to evacuation camps to meet those medical needs. Margret Chapweteka and her six family members have been at Nainunje evacuation camp since early March, when Cyclone Idai's floodwaters destroyed their house. But she complains of poor living conditions and the nearby clinic often running out of medicine she needs for her baby. She says this is not a good place to live; there are no toilets, there are no mosquito nets, there is almost nothing there. She says wishes they were given some start-up materials so that they could return to their homes. The U.N. Children's Fund is deploying mobile clinics to flood-affected areas. UNICEF says it will meet the health needs of not only children in the cyclone-hit areas, but also adults. Health Specialist Steve Macheso, who responsible for the emergency response at UNICEF Malawi, says the clinics keep track of the numbers of those affected and provide a broad array of services. After the first assessment, we had 7,000 as a target number of children to receive our services. So, we are planning around that for immunization services, malnutrition screening and everything. But that number has likely increased over time and we are actually updating this data to have a good view of how many children are affected, Macheso said. Medical workers say the children here suffer from malaria, diarrhea, and malnutrition. While the medical care is appreciated, flood survivor Flossy Reuben says camp residents are only able to get food by working for nearby farms. She says the problem is they are given relief items they already have - like plastic buckets, sanitizers for drinking water and tents - while their greatest need is food. Malawi and U.N. agencies admit food shortages are a critical problem in the cyclone-affected areas. Malawi is seeking an additional $25 million in aid to meet those basic needs. Authorities say they will begin closing the evacuation camps in May. At least 1,000 people were killed when Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi in March. In Malawi, the cyclone's floodwaters swamped medical facilities, forcing people to either walk long distances for healthcare or go without. The United Nations Children's Fund has deployed mobile clinics to evacuation camps to meet those medical needs, as Lameck Masina reports from Malawi's Machinga district. Voters in Israel cast their ballots Tuesday in one of the toughest general elections in recent history. Right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud Party, ran for a fifth term in office, meeting a tough challenge from his rival Benny Gantz, head of the centrist Blue and White coalition. There was no clear victor, so the candidate who can attract most parties to his coalition will be asked to form the new government. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports. India began the mammoth task of choosing its next government as voters lined up at polling booths stretching from the violence-wracked region of Kashmir in the north to eastern and central states. In an election that has been billed as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is widely expected to emerge as the single largest party, but fall short of the commanding majority it won in 2014. Modis main challenger is Rahul Gandhi, the head of the opposition Congress Party whose hope for a surge in support rests on his promise of tackling poverty. More than 140 million out of the countrys 900 million voters were eligible to cast ballots in Thursdays contest for 91 out of 543 parliamentary constituencies. The worlds largest democratic exercise presents dramatic contrasts: from polling stations guarded by heavily armed security personnel in violence-wracked regions such as Kashmir and Chattisgarh to a festive atmosphere in other places. At one polling station in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, voters were greeted with the beat of drums. Just before polls opened, Prime Minister Modi, who has made national security his key plank, called on people to vote in record numbers and made a special appeal to Indias staggering 85 million voters who joined the electoral rolls this year. "I specially urge young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers," he tweeted. I am excited. I am a part of this democracy now. I have the right to choose and to go with some government I want, said a smiling Neelisha Singhal, a 20-year-old college student as she waited for her turn to vote. The polls take place against the backdrop of concerns among minority communities that religious tensions have aggravated under BJP rule with rising numbers of attacks by fringe Hindu groups targeting Muslims. It has stoked fears among critics that the BJP wants to impose a Hindu nationalist agenda. Faimudadin, 40, a voter in western Uttar Pradesh, who came out early to cast his vote hopes that opposition parties will join hands to form a government. I want a change. I want development. Others like Seema Verma in Gaziabad on New Delhis outskirts are voting to give Modi a second term in office. The government has a done of lot of good work. I am satisfied with its performance. On the campaign trail, Modi has been firing up nationalist pride emphasizing his action in ordering an airstrike inside Pakistan to target an alleged militant training camp following a terror attack in Pulwama in Kashmir in February. In remarks that were slammed by critics, he called on first-time voters at a rally on Tuesday, Can your first vote be dedicated to the courageous soldiers who did the Balakot air strike? Can your first vote be in the name of the courageous martyrs who lost their lives in Pulwama? The party that won power in 2014 on its promise of good days to come has brushed aside questions on its poor record of creating jobs and improving the rural economy. The main opposition Congress Party hopes to tap into disgruntlement over rising unemployment and distress in the countryside where two thirds of India lives. Congress party head Rahul Gandhi, joined by his sister Priyanka Gandhi on the campaign trail, has also accused Modi of destroying Indias secular traditions. Rahul Gandhis hopes of returning to power rest on stitching up alliances with powerful regional parties. Several states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana that went to the polls are governed by regional parties. These parties are expected to play a key role in forming the next government as the BJP may not secure a clear majority. The polls were mostly peaceful but scattered violence was reported. One person was killed and four injured in a clash in the southern Andhra Pradesh. In Chattisgarh suspected Maoist rebels detonated an explosive devise early Thursday, but no injuries were reported. Election officials said people in the state turned out in large numbers to vote despite a call to boycott the polls. The polls will wrap up on May 19 after moving across the country over six more days. Votes will be counted on May 23rd. If the BJP emerges as a frontrunner, it will be a mandate drawn by populist nationalism and fusing this with some kind of religious polarization, says political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. Then it means that this politics is getting endorsed. Naba Mohideen contributed to this report from Khartoum; Margaret Besheer from New York and Salem Solomon from Washington. KHARTOUM/UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON A plan by Sudan's military to take over the country's government is getting a cold reception from protesters and the international community, who want to see the African nation take steps toward democracy. Sudan's defense minister announced the takeover on state television Thursday, after the army ousted the country's longtime president, Omar al-Bashir, following months of demonstrations against his 30-year iron-fisted rule. Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf said a transitional military council will run the government for the next two years. He declared a three-month state of emergency, the suspension of the constitution and the dissolution of parliament. Earlier, a Sudanese military source told VOA that al-Bashir, 75, has been put under house arrest. Protesters want civilians in charge Many protesters, initially excited by the fall of al-Bashir, became angry when they realized Sudan would be under military rule. New demonstrations broke out Thursday afternoon in the capital, Khartoum. One protester, Suha Ahmed, said Bashir opponents will not accept two more years of military rule. "After 30 years of the rule, we'll still be at a sit-in, until our demands are responded to with a transitional civil government, for a free, democratic, stable Sudan," she told VOA. "The army announcement was disappointing," said another protester, Mohamed Ali. "Because it didn't fulfill all missions of the revolution, I ask protestors to sit-in in front of army headquarters till the achievement of Sudan's revolution," he said. Protester Mutaz Mohamed noted that Defense Minister Ibn Auf, like al-Bashir, has been accused of war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region. Ibn Awf is wanted by the ICC [International Criminal Court]. How come you replaced a wanted one with another wanted one?" he asked. The Sudan Professionals Association was one of the key organizers of the recent anti-Bashir protests. Spokeswoman Sarah Abdeljalil, who is based in the United Kingdom, says the SPA is not optimistic about Thursday's events. "We dont think that anything has happened that is positive," she told VOA. "Its a regression rather than progression. Its a coup. We have never supported a coup. We were very clear in our statement for the last three to four days that we would never support a coup. We will support a military council that will work in parallel to the civil government in the transitional period." International disapproval In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said "the military takeover is not the appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan." He urged all parties to remain calm and exercise restraint. The United Nations Security Council is due to hold closed-door talks about the Sudan situation on Friday. Britain's deputy ambassador to the U.N., Jonathan Allen, condemned the military's transition plan as inadequate. "We need to see much faster transition. We need to see civilian rule now. That's what the protesters have been calling for and that is what we need to do," Allen told reporters. Professor Hassan Hajji, a political science lecturer at the University of Khartoum, said Sudan's next rulers will face some major challenges. "First we have the economy which has deteriorated in the last year or so. This is the main concern now for most of the Sudanese people, how to meet their minimum needs for the families," said Hajji. "The other challenge is ... how to bring the military groups in Darfur and in the Nuba Mountains and in the Southern Blue Nile to the peace process. How to maintain peace in Sudan is also another challenge for the coming military rule." Hajji said he doubts the now ex-president will be sent to the ICC for trial. "In Sudan, a large number of people, they want other ways of settling the grievances that took place in the previous era," he told VOA. "Some people are suggesting that we should follow South Africa's path or the Moroccan, or perhaps Truth and Justice [Commission], where people will try to solve this by traditional Sudanese and African means." A spokesman for the Dalai Lama says the Tibetan spiritual leader could be released from a hospital in New Delhi on Friday. The 83-year-old Dalai Lama has been undergoing treatment for a chest infection since he was admitted on Tuesday. Spokesman Tenzin Taklha says the monk is feeling much better and will soon return to Dharamsala, the home of his permanent government-in-exile since 1959. The Dalai Lama escaped to India after a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule was thwarted by Chinese troops. His appeal for greater autonomy for Tibet earned him the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, but it has been rejected by Beijing, who has denounced the spiritual leader as a separatist. Emboldened by the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court, anti-abortion lawmakers and activists in numerous states are pushing near-total bans on the procedure in a deliberate frontal attack on Roe v. Wade. Mississippi and Kentucky have passed laws that would ban most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which means as early as six weeks, when many women dont even know theyre pregnant. Georgia could join them if Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signs a measure that has been sent to him. And a bill in Ohio won final approval Wednesday in the Republican-controlled legislature; it now heads to GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, who said he will sign it. The final votes followed a spirited committee hearing where abortion rights activists evoked an era of back alleys and coat-hanger abortions. Similar bills have been filed in at least seven other states with anti-abortion GOP majorities in their legislatures. Criminalize abortion Alabama may go further, with legislation introduced last week to criminalize abortion at any stage unless the mothers health is in jeopardy. The chief sponsor of the Alabama bill, Rep. Terri Collins, acknowledged that the measure, like the heartbeat bills, is intended as a direct challenge to Roe, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. To me this is an issue the court simply got wrong years ago, said Collins, who hopes President Donald Trumps appointments of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court lead to a reconsideration of Roe. Staci Fox, Atlanta-based CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said these bans are blatantly unconstitutional and lawmakers know it, they just dont care. The goal, she said, is to challenge access to safe, legal abortion nationally. Trouble reaching Supreme Court Activists and legal experts on both sides of the debate agree that getting a Supreme Court decision on such a defining case is unlikely any time soon. The bans may face difficulties just reaching the high court, given that Roe established a clear right to an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. Kentuckys heartbeat law has been blocked for now by a federal judge; abortion-rights lawyers are seeking a similar injunction in Mississippi before the law there takes effect July 1. The lower courts are going to find these laws unconstitutional because the Supreme Court requires that outcome, said Hillary Schneller, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights. However, some federal appeals courts around the country, such as the 5th Circuit, which covers Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, are viewed as having grown more conservative with the addition of Trump appointees. Less-sweeping measures If even one circuit breaks with Roe v. Wade and upholds a heartbeat ban, that could be enough for the Supreme Court to take up the issue, said Justin Dyer, a political science professor at the University of Missouri. Alternatively, the high court could agree to hear any of several less sweeping anti-abortion measures. Some would tighten restrictions on clinics; others seek to ban certain categories of abortions. What might happen at the Supreme Court is far from clear. Legal experts are unsure what effect the Trump appointees might have, or where Chief Justice John Roberts stands in regard to Roe. Schneller said she is skeptical the reconfigured court will overturn or weaken Roe, as abortion foes are hoping. Over 45 years, the court has had different compositions, and weve always gotten the same answer, she said. Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches social research at Catholic University of America, warned that it is impossible to predict what the court will do but said Kavanaughs appointment gives pro-lifers hope that legislation which offers more comprehensive protection to the unborn will receive a sympathetic hearing. Some anti-abortion groups have declined to endorse the heartbeat bills, signaling doubts about their prospects. Texas Right to Life has instead endorsed bills that would curtail late-term abortions and ban abortions based on a fetus race, gender or disability. If the Supreme Court ever did overturn Roe v. Wade, states would presumably be left to decide for themselves whether abortion would be legal. Abortions declining The renewed challenges come as the number of abortions performed in the U.S. has steadily declined since reaching a peak of 1.6 million in 1990. The latest 50-state tally was 926,000 in 2014, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. The heartbeat bills in particular have alarmed many women. After Kentuckys governor signed the heartbeat bill, and before it was blocked, we could feel the fear, said Marcie Crim of the Kentucky Health Justice Network, which runs a fund supporting Kentuckians who opt to get abortions. We had so many phone calls from people trying to save up the money for their procedure, Crim said. They were thinking they were safe and could go get this done, and all of a sudden it was snatched away from them. In Georgia, where Kemp is expected to sign the heartbeat bill soon, more than 50 actors, including Alyssa Milano, Alec Baldwin and Amy Schumer, have threatened a campaign to pull Hollywood productions out of Georgia, a hub for TV and movie projects, if the ban is enacted. Other states where heartbeat bills have been filed, and in some cases advanced, include Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Louisiana and West Virginia. Sudan's state-controlled television says the army will make an "important statement" sometime Thursday. State media offered no details about the upcoming message, but Pan-Arab TV networks carried unconfirmed reports that President Omar al-Bashir had stepped down, according to the Associated Press. His whereabouts were unknown. The surprise announcement came amid intensified protests demanding the resignation of al-Bashir. Protesters have staged a sit-in since last Saturday in front of the Sudanese military headquarters since last Saturday. At least 22 people have been killed in clashes with security forces, according to activists. The protests began Dec. 19, with demonstrators accusing Bashir's government of economic mismanagement that has sparked skyrocketing food prices, and fuel and foreign currency shortages. Bashir imposed a nationwide state of emergency Feb. 22 in an attempt to suppress the protests after an initial crackdown failed. The government said weeks ago that 31 people had been killed, but the group Physicians for Human Rights estimates the death toll is at least 60. The government continues to enforce tough measures that have resulted in the arrests of protesters, opposition leaders and journalists. The son of a white sheriff's deputy has been arrested and charged with of burning down three historic African-American churches in St. Landry Parrish, Louisiana. Police identify the suspect as 21 year-old Holden Matthews, whose father not only knew nothing about his son's alleged crimes, but helped set up his arrest. "He broke down. He's shocked and hurt as any father would be," Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said. Police say they have no motive for the fires so far, but say the FBI is investigating them as possible hate crimes. Matthews is charged with three counts of arson. He allegedly set fire to three historically black churches in Louisiana between March 26 and April 4. None of the houses of worship were occupied at the time and no one was hurt. But Governor John Bel Edwards said the arsons were "especially painful because it reminds us of a very dark period of intimidation and fear" a reference to the dark days in the southern U.S. when many black churches were firebombed by white supremacist terrorists, sometimes with deadly results. Matthews was tracked down through surveillance video, cellphone records, and a gasoline can that was traced to a department store and allegedly bought with Matthews' debit card. If convicted, Matthews faces as much as 45 years in prison. National security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. WHITE HOUSE U.S. President Donald Trump says more troops will need to be sent to the countrys southern border because too many dangerous people are illegally entering the United States. Im going to have to call up more military. Our military, dont forget it, cant act like a military would act. Because if they got a little rough, everybody would go crazy, Trump, in Texas, told reporters during a meeting ranchers who complained to him about the constant threat from trespassers on their properties. Former Defense Secretary William Perry, who served under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, rejected Trumps suggested use of force. The U.S. Armed Forces are not hired thugs to be used to rough up non-violent civilians for political games, and expressing the desire to utilize them as such disrespects the dignity and honor of our men and women in uniform, Perry posted on Twitter. Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, asked by reporters earlier in the day about a possible multiyear deployment of troops to the border, responded, saying he had been speaking at length about that with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I would expect shortly here to have another request for assistance, Shanahan said. Trump, in San Antonio, specifically blamed the problem on the governments of four countries: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia. Those countries are sending the tough ones, theyre sending the gang members, he said. Theyll kill you, take your truck, sometimes rob your house. Who the hell can live like this? asked Trump, sitting in a room surrounded by area Republican politicians and property owners. Trump contrasted the migrants from Central and South America with the now smaller number of Mexicans who cross the border illegally. People from Mexico, they come in and help with the farming and they go out, no problem, according to Trump. California Governor Gavin Newsom, who returned from a trip to El Salvador earlier this week, objected to Trumps characterization of those traveling to the United States from Central America. People are fleeing countries like El Salvador from violence, corruption, poverty, and persecution. They come to the U.S. to seek a better life for their families and loved ones. Our president shouldnt be mocking them for it, Newsom wrote on Twitter. The president had called a group of reporters traveling with him into the event, which had not been scheduled to be open to them. He also used the opportunity to again express his dissatisfaction with coverage of immigration issues and his quest to erect new fences and walls on the U.S. border with Mexico. We ripped down a wall that was dead, it was useless and we built a new one, said Trump, complaining that some of them said we didnt build a wall. After explaining that the new portion of wall in Calexico, California, was my design, Trump said to journalists: Theyre dishonest people, many of you. The president added: It would be so great if you write a straight story and let the world know. Trump added, Nobody has any idea how bad it has been for many years. According to the president, all of the ranchers Wednesday told him they find bodies lying all over the field, including many pregnant women. Blame for not being able to rectify the situation lies with the Democrats, according to Trump, who said there are horrible laws that the Democrats wont change. And I think they will pay a very big price in 2020. Trump faces a re-election challenge next year. Currently, nearly 20 members of the Democratic Party are seeking to face him in next Novembers general election. The president denied his comments, made with participants who had attended a political fundraising lunch, were campaign posturing. Trump said, rather, he is publicizing the issue from a humanitarian standpoint. Earlier in the day, departing the White House for his one-day trip to Texas, Trump said he is the only person in charge of his immigration policy. The president made the remark when asked about the influence of an aide, Stephen Miller, seen as instrumental in forming the administrations stance on immigration and border security. There has been speculation Trump might want Miller to succeed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who is resigning. Trump praised Miller, a lightning rod for criticism of the administrations hard-line stance, as an excellent guy and a brilliant man, adding: Frankly, theres only one person thats running it: You know who that is? Its me. Trump has selected U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to serve as acting DHS secretary. Asked whether he might nominate McAleenan for the permanent job, the president responded he likes McAleenan a lot and it could happen. U.S. President Donald Trump is hosting South Korean President Moon Jae-in for talks Thursday at the White House focused on the goal of both nations to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Trump has held two summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with the most recent one in February ending early with no agreement as the North Koreans demanded sanctions relief and the U.S. delegation called for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. Moon has been a proponent of incremental measures toward denuclearization with the United States using the relaxation of some sanctions as a way to entice North Korea to negotiate and begin to take steps of its own. WATCH: US, South Korean Presidents Mull Way to Revive Talks with North Korea U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner told VOAs Korean service that it would be a mistake for the United States to give Kim what he wants without making firm demands in return. I dont support relieving pressure until we have that denuclearization or concrete steps toward it, Gardner said. Like multiple other senators who spoke to VOA ahead of Thursdays talks, Gardner said the U.S.-South Korea relationship is an integral component in the push for denuclearization. Sen. Dan Sullivan said North Korea and other nations, including Russia and China, have for decades sought to split the United States and South Korea, and that in the current situation South Korea should not be seen as serving as a mediator to U.S.-North Korea talks. To me the most important thing as we look at any kind of meeting, is that it needs to be perceived as the U.S. and South Korea working together, Sullivan told VOA. My only concern is if you have some kind of an idea of a mediator role that makes South Korea look like theyre in between. Theyre not, theyre aligned with us. Sen. Jack Reed said U.S.-South Korean solidarity is key, with the allies stronger together than they are working separately. I think words arent as important as actions, Reed said. I think we have to be consistent and we have to have a common strategy and purpose and demonstrate to the North Koreans that the South Koreans and the United States cant be separated. VOA Korean Service reporter Joeun Lee contributed to this report. WHITE HOUSE Sitting alongside South Korea's president at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed willingness to hold another summit with North Korea's leader to try to reach a sweeping denuclearization deal. "A third summit could happen," said Trump. "It's step-by-step. It's not going to go fast." There are various "smaller deals that could happen," Trump responded to a reporter in the Oval Office when asked if he would accept any agreements shy of denuclearization. "But right now, we're talking about the big deal," which is "we have to get rid of the nuclear weapons." Trump, responding to another reporter, said he has decided not to toughen sanctions on Pyongyang, but wants the existing "sanctions to remain in place." South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in his remarks, described the process as still moving forward. Moon has been a booster of the summits between the leaders of the United States and North Korea, which have never established diplomatic relations. The South Korean president told Trump that the first summit the U.S. president held in Singapore with Kim in June of last year led to a significant reduction of tension on the Korean peninsula and there is a need for a third summit to be held. "Now peace has prevailed," Moon, speaking in Korean, told Trump. "We believe you will be able to solve this problem and the dramatic turnaround is solely due to your strong leadership." Trump declined to say if he had been in communication with Kim in recent weeks. "Kim Jong Un will be the winner of the Trump-Moon meeting," according to Professor Sung-Yoon Lee of the Fletcher School at Tufts University. "We coordinate so closely with them regularly and the relationship is just ironclad," State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Palladino said about Moon's government when questioned at a briefing about the differences in approach to North Korea that are evident between Seoul and Washington. Lee told VOA the U.S. and South Korean presidents still "stand far apart on a host of issues," including Kim's intentions, South Korea's desire to lessen sanctions on the North, the share of costs Seoul should pay for hosting U.S. troops, differing views on the assertiveness of China, and the lack of military and intelligence cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo. "Regardless of diplomatic niceties expressed at the summit this week, Moon's stance will continue to harden against Trump's," Lee predicted. Trump has held two summits with Kim the most recent one in February in Hanoi, ending early with no agreement as the North Koreans demanded sanctions relief and the U.S. delegation called for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. "It is important that we regain the momentum on denuclearization talks that was lost at the Vietnam summit, and today's talks are an important step," California Democrat Ami Bera, who is co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Korea, told VOA. "We must continue to work in lock-step with our South Korean partners to find the best possible path forward. It is also vital that Congress be given an opportunity to weigh in on the process and assert its oversight authority over any agreement the administration reaches." Moon has been a proponent of incremental measures toward denuclearization, with the United States using the relaxation of some sanctions as a way to entice North Korea to negotiate and begin to take steps of its own. U.S. Senator Cory Gardner told VOA's Korean service it would be a mistake for the United States to give Kim what he wants without making firm demands in return. "I don't support relieving pressure until we have that denuclearization or concrete steps toward it," said Gardner, a Colorado Republican who chairs the Senate's foreign relations subcommittee on the East Asia-Pacific region. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he believes top U.S. government law enforcement officials spied on his 2016 campaign, echoing the claim first offered without evidence by his new attorney general, William Barr. "There absolutely was spying into my campaign," Trump said at the White House. His assessment came a day after Barr told a Senate committee that he believes "spying did occur" during the campaign, although it was not clear exactly what he was referring to. The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on several occasions authorized surveillance of Trump foreign affairs aide Carter Page. Trump said, "Hard to believe it could have happened. But it did. There was spying in my campaign, and [Barr's] answer was a very accurate one." 'Coup' attempt Trump said he would call it "illegal spying." On Wednesday, he said investigators who started an initial probe into his 2016 campaign were attempting a "coup" and committing "treason" to keep him from winning. His claims are among those advanced by conservatives and pundits on Fox News, his favorite cable news network. But opposition Democrats are deriding the contention that Trump was spied on. Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York said Barr had "destroyed the scintilla of credibility he had left" with his suggestion law enforcement officials spied on Trump's campaign. Schumer said Barr was intentionally using claims made by conspiracy theorists and "the president's allies on Fox News." Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, leader of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, said Barr was "going off the rails" with the spying suggestion. Barr, appointed by Trump as the country's top law enforcement official, said he wants to find out whether the investigation of Trump's campaign in the early stages was "adequately predicated." "I want to make sure government power was not abused," Barr told lawmakers. Later, he said the origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into Trump campaign contacts with Russia may have been mishandled, but that he was not sure whether there had been improper surveillance. Redacted report New questions about the events of 2016 are arising as Barr says that within days he will release a redacted version of the nearly 400-page report compiled by special counsel Robert Mueller after his 22-month investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe. Last month, Barr released a four-page summary of the Mueller report. It said the special counsel had concluded that there was no evidence Trump or his campaign had colluded with the Russians during the 2016 U.S. election, but that no decision had been made one way or the other about whether Trump had obstructed justice. With Mueller not reaching a conclusion on the obstruction issue, Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided that no obstruction charges were warranted against Trump. Trump has claimed that the report was "total exoneration." U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to the fighting that erupted last week between Libyan political rivals for control of the capital, Tripoli. Its still time to stop. Its still time for a cease-fire to take place, for a cessation of hostilities to take place and to avoid the worst, which would be a dramatic bloody battle for Tripoli, Guterres told reporters late Wednesday after he met behind closed doors with the 15-nation U.N. Security Council for more than two hours. It is still time to recognize there is no military solution. Only political solutions can apply to situations like the one in Libya, he said. Guterres visited Libya last week. Just hours after he departed the country, forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Haftar advanced from their positions in the east on Tripoli, which is controlled by the U.N.-backed Presidential Council and Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj. Guterres met with both men during his mission. It is obvious that my appeal for an offensive not to take place and for the hostilities to stop was not heard, the U.N. chief said. But I think that when one looks at the situation today, it is clear that we have a very dangerous situation, and it is clear that we absolutely need to stop it. National conference canceled The fighting has scuttled U.N. plans for a national conference Sunday to bring the warring parties together. The U.N. said Tuesday that it is postponing it, as violence is overshadowing the political process. On Wednesday, fighting centered on the suburbs south of the capital, with thousands of civilians fleeing their homes for safety. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than 5,800 people have been displaced in this latest round of violence. Residents in the city report Haftars warplanes were buzzing neighborhoods and firing at them. Fighting was also reported at what had been the countrys international airport. The U.N. has expressed concern at the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas and called on the parties to abide by international law and to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. Fears for region U.N. officials fear the violence in Libya could destabilize the entire Middle East by sending more refugees fleeing to Europe across the dangerous Mediterranean, disrupting oil production, and allowing terrorist groups such as Islamic State to take advantage of the chaos. South Africas U.N. ambassador, Jerry Matjila, told reporters after the meeting that the Security Council is united in supporting the U.N. chief and his special envoy, Ghassan Salame, to get the parties back to the negotiating table. Matjila also expressed concern about how the worsening situation could reverberate on the African continent. Fears for Africans Also, our concern is Africans, about what might happen in the Sahel if the issue is not resolved, he said. We are also concerned about migrants who are trapped in some cities in Libya, and we need to give those migrants at least a corridor to go out to safety. There are thousands of African migrants who have tried to transit through Libya across the Mediterranean to Europe. Many are in overcrowded detention centers in Libya. Libya has been in political and economic chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011. Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. The United Nations and European Union are urging an immediate end to the fighting in Libya which is threatening to destabilize the entire region. Rival governments in Libya the internationally recognized administration of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj in Tripoli, and General Khalifa Haftar's government in the east are battling for control of the capital. U.N. officials say three emergency medical providers have reportedly been killed and more than 8,000 civilians have fled their homes. "We remain deeply concerned about the well-being of the civilians in and around the areas of clashes, especially amid increasing reports of indiscriminate shelling," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday. He added that families trapped in the battle zone are running out of supplies, and emergency teams are going in at great personal risk. The U.N. is calling for a humanitarian truce to let emergency aid in and to give civilians a chance to get out. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says there can be no military solution and that the parties must return to the political process. The European Union is calling on Haftar's Libyan National Army forces to halt their offensive against the capital. "The military attack launched by the LNA on Tripoli and the subsequent escalation in and around the capital are endangering civilians, including migrants and refugees, and disrupting the U.N.-led political process, with the risk of serious consequences for Libya and the wider region, including the terrorist threat," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said. The fighting for control of Tripoli was still centered in the city's southern suburbs Thursday. The U.N. says at least 56 people have been killed, while al-Serraj's government says it has taken 200 prisoners. Libya has been in political and economic chaos since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled and killed in 2011. Nigerian troops evacuated the entire population of a town of 10,000 people in northeastern Borno state without warning on Monday before an operation against militants, the United Nations said on Thursday. The military relocated the people of Jakana to a camp in the city of Maiduguri about 40 km (25 miles) away, some arriving with "nothing, not even shoes on their feet," the United Nations said in a statement. The northeast is the battleground in Nigeria's decade-long fight against Islamist insurgencies Islamic State West Africa Province and Boko Haram. A surge in militant attacks in December in which towns and military bases were overrun saw tens of thousands of civilians fleeing into Maiduguri and swelling the population of existing camps. "The entire town of Jakana was emptied, and people were forced to move to Maiduguri with very little time to collect personal belongings," Edward Kallon, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, said in the statement. Jakana residents said the military was screening the population for Boko Haram members. Last June, the Nigerian government ordered thousands of people to leave the relative safety of their camp in Maiduguri to live in a town in an unsafe area. In September, the town was attacked, forcing the population to flee. A senior U.N. official is appealing to Russia and Turkey as guarantors of a de-escalation agreement in Syria's Idlib province to prevent a further intensification of fighting in this rebel-held enclave. The official briefed journalists in Geneva on a meeting of the International Syria Support Groups Humanitarian Access Task Force. More than three million civilians live in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib. Most are trapped in the enclave with nowhere to go in the event of a full-fledged war between Russian-backed Syrian forces and rebels. A 2018 de-escalation zone agreement mediated by Russia, Turkey, and Iran succeeded in maintaining an uneasy peace in this volatile area, but the lull appears to be breaking down. U.N. Senior Humanitarian Advisor for Syria Najat Rochdi said the United Nations has been receiving troubling reports during the past few weeks of increased military activity and attacks in Idlib. Rochdi said 106,000 people have fled their homes since February and at least 190 people have been killed as a direct result of increased fighting. We have a regional plan for up to 900,000 people who could be affected in northwestern Syria if limited military action takes place. But many more people will be affected. Any large-scale military offensive in the northwest will put thousands of lives at risk and affect an even larger number of people and very likely overwhelm our humanitarian partners, she said. Rochdi said recent talks by Russia and Turkey regarding the resumption of patrols in the area give her some hope a devastating conflict might be averted. Rochdi also said another area of great concern is the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Al Hol camp in al-Hasakah governorate in northeast Syria. She said the camps population exceeds 73,000 in an area originally intended for 41,000 people. Most of those arriving in the camp have fled the Islamic State group's last stronghold in Deir ez-Zor Governorate. Rochdi said 92 percent of the camp inhabitants are women, children and the elderly. She said there are no males over the age of 15. Rochdi said people are extremely vulnerable and most who arrive in Al Hol are malnourished and suffering from a wide range of health problems. She said referral hospitals are overwhelmed and cannot accept any more patients. Other pressing needs, she said include shelter, water and sanitation and hygiene. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will unveil a proposal to speed state-level permitting decisions for energy infrastructure projects soon, the agency's chief told Reuters on Thursday, blasting states that have blocked coal terminals and gas pipelines on environmental grounds. President Donald Trump is seeking to boost domestic fossil fuels production over the objections of Democrats and environmentalists concerned about pollution and climate change. On Wednesday he issued a pair of executive orders targeting the power of states to delay energy projects. "We started working on it in advance, so we hope to have something out soon," EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in an interview. He was unable to provide a precise timeline. Based on Trump's orders, Wheeler's EPA has been tasked with clarifying a section of the U.S. Clean Water Act that has allowed states like New York and Washington to delay projects in recent years. New York has used the section to delay pipelines that would bring natural gas to New England, for example, and Washington state has stopped coal export terminals that would open the Asian market for struggling coal companies in Wyoming and other landlocked western states. "They are trying to make international environmental policy," Wheeler said of Washington state, whose governor, Democrat Jay Inslee, is running for president on a climate change-focused platform. "They're trying to dictate to the world how much coal is used." Wheeler said New York, which amid strong public pressure denied a clean water act permit for construction of a natural gas pipeline to New England, is forcing that region "to use Russian-produced natural gas." "We are importing Russian natural gas which is not produced in an environmentally conscious manner. If the states that are blocking the pipelines were truly concerned about the environment, they would look to where the natural gas would be coming from ... I think it's very short-sighted," he said. Wheeler said the EPA would not prevent a state from vetoing a project, but would clarify the parameters they should be able to consider, and the length of time they have to do so. He also said that California is playing politics in its fight with the EPA to preserve its more stringent vehicle emission standards as the national standard. Wheeler: Water trumps climate Wheeler said he believes climate change is a problem, but that it had been overblown by former President Barack Obama's administration at the expense of other bigger issues like water quality. "Yes, climate is an issue and we are working to address it, but I think water is a bigger issue," he said. Wheeler dismissed the findings of a report released earlier this week by EPA scientists in the journal Nature Climate Change that detailed the scale and urgency of climate change. He said while he encouraged EPA scientists to carry out and publish research, he stressed the recent paper "did not reflect EPA policy." Environmental groups say the EPA's replacement of an Obama-era rule limiting carbon emissions from power plants would likely lead to increased emissions by allowing older, more polluting coal plants to operate longer. Asked whether the replacement the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which gives states responsibility for regulating emissions is stringent enough, Wheeler said it adheres to the parameters of federal law. "I think what is effective regulation is one that follows the law and one that will be held up in court," he said. EPA vs. polls Several Democrats challenging Trump in the 2020 election have made climate change a top-tier issue, embracing aggressive policy platforms like the Green New Deal calling for an end of fossil fuels use. Asked whether he was concerned that the EPA may be out of synch with polls showing an overwhelming number of young people believe climate change should be a priority issue, Wheeler was dismissive. "I do fear that because so many people only talked about climate change. You're right, there could very well be a new generation coming up saying that's the only environmental issue and it's not," he said. Lin Feng contributed to this report WASHINGTON A senior official in the U.S. Department of State said Wednesday the security concerns the government has raised related to Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE extend to all companies headquartered in China, saying they are effectively "under direction" of the Chinese Communist Party. "It's very important to distinguish how Western democracies operate relative to their private sector companies and vendors, and how the Chinese government operates with its companies," Ambassador Robert L. Strayer, deputy assistant secretary for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy, said during a conference call with reporters. Chinese companies don't have the ability to mount a legal challenge to directives from the government, he said. "They don't have the ability to go to court," he said. "They're basically under direction what we call extra-judicial command of the Communist Party of China ... to take actions, when requested by the government. There's not the same rule of law that we consider a part of our daily lives and all of our business dealings in Western democracies." Strayer has been the point person in the Trump administration's effort to block Chinese firms, and Huawei in particular, from participating in the global rollout of 5G mobile communications technology, insisting that Chinese law requires the companies to cooperate with Beijing's intelligence services. Strayer and other officials have warned that Chinese telecommunications firms could give Beijing intelligence services secret "back-door" access to sensitive communications networks, or that in a crisis, they could disrupt communications on command. His comments were among the administration's most comprehensive justification for trying to block Huawei's entry into the U.S. and European 5G markets. The push has included warnings that the United States may restrict the kind of intelligence it shares, even with close allies, if Washington is not satisfied that communications networks are secure. To this point, the U.S. has failed to produce hard evidence of Huawei or ZTE engaging in espionage for the Chinese government. However, both firms have been charged with theft of intellectual property from rival companies, and Huawei has been charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran. Huawei and ZTE have consistently denied they ever have or will act as an arm of Chinese intelligence services. Ren Zhengfei, Huawei's 74-year-old founder and president, recently told the BBC that to do so would be economic suicide. "Our sales revenues are now hundreds of billions of dollars," he said. "We are not going to risk the disgust of our country and our customers all over the world because of something like that. We will lose all our business. I'm not going to take that risk." Samm Sacks, cybersecurity policy and China digital economy fellow at the New America Foundation, said, "The reality is the Communist Party of China uses the law selectively as an instrument as it sees fit." "What does worry me is this hypothetical situation of what Huawei would be employed to do by the Chinese government," she told VOA. "I think we have to look at what Huawei as a commercial company needing to succeed in global markets have in its interest. And I'd say right now, it's not in its interests to use those vulnerabilities. But that could change in another scenario." The U.S. effort so far has achieved only limited success in its efforts to get allies to impose blanket restrictions on the use of equipment made by Huawei and ZTE in cutting edge, high-speed, next-generation infrastructure. However, Strayer said that as countries around the world begin looking closely at the risks, he believes an eventual ban on the two firms' products is inevitable. He cited a recent analysis of Huawei equipment by government investigators in the United Kingdom, which found myriad security flaws and engineering deficiencies in devices meant to support the rollout of 5G in that country. In Germany, he said, a set of strict security standards under consideration would amount to a de facto ban on Chinese-made 5G equipment. The proposed German standards would require that telecommunications systems "be sourced from trustworthy suppliers whose compliance with national security regulations and provisions for the secrecy of telecommunications and for data protection is assured." Given the legal requirement that Chinese companies assist the intelligence services and keep that assistance secret "It's hard to see how Chinese technology would meet that standard for protection of data," he said. Strayer said the U.S. is encouraging all countries to consider similar regulations. "We have encouraged countries to adopt risk-based security frameworks," Strayer said. "And we think that a rigorous application of those frameworks, if they include supply chain security risk and the consideration of the relationship between a 5G vendor and their government, will lead, inevitably, to the banning of Huawei and ZTE." In his remarks Wednesday, Strayer focused on the issue of 5G infrastructure, but at times broadened his critique of Chinese government policies to encompass all firms based in China that deal with sensitive technology. "We think it's very important that countries deploying 5G networks consider the relationship between a foreign government, where a vendor is headquartered, and the companies themselves and that country," he said. "When we look at the Chinese laws, relative to intelligence and national security, those allow the Chinese government to direct the actions of companies for their national interest of China, as well as require that companies to maintain secrecy, about the actions they've taken at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party." He also echoed a common complaint from Western countries that Chinese government policies provide advantages to domestic firms that give them an unfair competitive advantage when they move into international markets. "The Chinese government, through state-owned banks and other sources, has provided in some cases zero percent interest, 20-year loan offers, which are not commercially reasonable," he said. "That kind of unfair playing field is not one that Western technology should have to compete with. It should be a level playing field for technology vendors." In addition, he said, government-supported "cross subsidization" allows Chinese firms another avenue by which they can undercut the prices of Western firms. "They can get large profits on what they sell into the Chinese market, which they largely have under their control through the government, and then use those subsidies to then offer lower prices in our markets in the West." The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. U.S. officials are publicly pledging support for Taiwan at a time when there are signs of increased Chinese aggression. The outspoken support comes as Washington and Taipei mark 40 years since signing the Taiwan Relations Act. State Department correspondent Nike Ching has more. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday called for bipartisan talks aimed at bolstering asylum laws and addressing border security, issuing a bid for negotiations amid a surge of migrants crossing the southwestern U.S. border and daily outcries by President Donald Trump about the need to clamp down on immigration. "What we need to do is sit down in a serious, adult, bipartisan basis and try to fix the problem, because the problem is pretty obvious,'' McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. "Border security is a part of it, but that doesn't solve the asylum issue, and that can't be solved, I don't think, without some kind of statutory adjustment.'' McConnell's statement underscored the political pressures facing lawmakers amid a steady diet of news reports about federal agencies being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico. Trump has shaken up his team atop the Department of Homeland Security, imposed new policies to curb the numbers of people being processed for entry, complained that asylum laws and too lax and asserted that the country is "full.'' The prospects that serious talks will be held, let alone prove successful, are murky. Congress has not approved sweeping immigration legislation in decades. Democrats believe Trump merely wants to use the border problem as an issue in his re-election bid next year, and the approach of the presidential election means the curtain for substantive compromises on any issues will fall in just a few months. By international law, nations are supposed to let asylum seekers stay in their countries if they have legitimate, specific fears of persecution or danger if they return home. The U.S. Border Patrol said it apprehended 92,607 people at the U.S.-Mexico border in March. That included just over 53,000 who were parents and children traveling together, largely from Central America, which it calls a new record for family members. McConnell said negotiators would determine if the talks would also address other issues including the status of young "Dreamers'' brought to the U.S. illegally as children. "I would like to see some serious bipartisan discussions going on to try to solve as many of these problems as we can agree to solve,'' he said. Asked if he'd discussed possible talks with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., McConnell said, "Well, yeah, we're talking about a variety of different things. We'll see what happens.'' A Schumer aide asked for comment did not immediately provide the Democrat's reaction. Last year talks between bipartisan senators and the White House failed to produce an immigration deal after Trump insisted on restrictions on legal immigration, which Democrats opposed. South Korean President Moon Jae-In is meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday to discuss ways of getting talks on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula back on track. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has asked for concessions before halting the country's nuclear program, but the U.S. government says the economic sanctions must stay in place until that program is dismantled. VOA's Korean service discussed the future of the talks with U.S. lawmakers. Zlatica Hoke reports. The U.S. on Thursday unsealed charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a computer hacking conspiracy linked to the release of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. documents, just hours after British police dramatically arrested him at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he had been holed up for nearly seven years. The indictment of Assange stems from one of the largest breaches of classified information in U.S. history, the 2010 WikiLeaks release of a vast cache of U.S. military records from its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, assessments of suspected terrorists held by the U.S. at its prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, and 250,000 State Department cables. WATCH: US Charges Assange After London Arrest The U.S. accused Assange of conspiring with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley Manning before declaring herself a woman, to crack a password stored on U.S. Defense Department computers to hack into a government network of classified documents and communications known as the Secret Internet Protocol Network. Cracking the password, the government said, allowed Manning to log on to computers under a username that did not belong to her, initially making it more difficult for authorities to determine the source of the illegal disclosures. The government said that Assange and Manning engaged in real-time discussions as she transmitted classified records to Assange that WikiLeaks then disclosed. During one exchange, according to the indictment, Manning told Assange, "After this upload, that's all I really have got left." To which Assange replied, "Curious eyes never run dry in my experience." Following the exchange, the indictment alleged that Manning accessed the State Department cables that WikiLeaks later publicly released. U.S. President Donald Trump often cheered WikiLeaks during the last weeks of his 2016 campaign for the White House as it released hacked emails reflecting badly on his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. But after the charges were filed against Assange, he told reporters at the White House he knew "nothing about" WikiLeaks and did not have any opinion about the case. Assange, 47, is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and, if convicted, faces a five-year prison term. He had taken refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 in order to avoid being extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault charges. Sweden later dropped its investigation, but Assange remained at the embassy over fears Britain might extradite him to the United States in connection with WikiLeaks' publication of classified U.S. government documents. British officers said they arrested Assange at the embassy in connection with a June 2012 British warrant for "failing to surrender to court," but that the action was taken after a U.S. extradition request. The police said they were invited into the embassy by Ecuador's ambassador after the Ecuadorian government withdrew Assange's asylum. Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno issued a video statement Thursday explaining his country's decision, saying it had "reached its limit" on his behavior. "Today I announce that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of his allied organization against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable," Moreno said. He listed a series of alleged transgressions by Assange during his time at the embassy, including installing electronic equipment that was not allowed, blocking security cameras, mistreating guards, and accessing embassy security files without permission. Moreno said most recently, WikiLeaks released Vatican documents, and that before and after the release key members of the organization visited Assange, pointing to his continued relationship with a group "interfering in internal affairs of other states." The Ecuadorian leader also said that in line with his government's respect for human rights, he requested Britain not extradite Assange to any country where he might be subject to torture or the death penalty, and that Britain had "confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules." In a Twitter post, WikiLeaks said Ecuador "illegally terminated Assange's political asylum in violation of international law." Pope Francis has told leaders of South Sudan that peace is possible and urged the country's leaders to seek what unites and overcome what divides. At the end of a two-day meeting in the Vatican, the pope shocked those present by kneeling and kissing the feet of South Sudan's former warring leaders. At the end of the two-day meeting in the Vatican, originally proposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Pope Francis told South Sudanese leaders to recognize the enormous shared responsibility they hold for the present and future of their country. Those attending the meeting included South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar, and three other vice presidents. The pope called on them to commit themselves to the building of their nation. The pope said, "People are wearied, exhausted by past conflicts: remember that with war, all is lost! Your people today are yearning for a better future, which can only come about through reconciliation and peace." The pope said this meeting was "something altogether special and in some sense unique," as it was neither an ordinary bilateral nor diplomatic meeting between the pope and heads of state, nor an ecumenical initiative involving representatives of different Christian communities. Instead, it was a spiritual retreat. South Sudan's civil war, which broke out in late 2013, has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 4 million South Sudanese from their homes. A peace deal last August has reduced but not stopped the fighting. One of the South Sudanese religious leaders attending said these were days of intense prayer and deep reflection and of open and frank dialogue and spiritual conversation. "The leaders leave here renewed and committed to the task of working for peace, striving for reconciliation and seeking justice for the 13 million people, the South Sudanese, whose prayer and hope they all carry." Pope Francis told them how he learned last September that a peace agreement for the country had been signed and congratulated political leaders for "having chosen the path of dialogue." He urged them to implement what has been agreed on. The pope expressed his heartfelt hope that hostilities would finally cease, that the armistice would be respected, that political and ethnic divisions would be surmounted, and that there would be a lasting peace for all those citizens who dream of beginning to build the nation. After his speech at the end of the retreat, Pope Francis kissed the feet of the former warring leaders and told them their people are waiting for their return home, for reconciliation, and a new era of prosperity. As conflict continues to escalate between the forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar and the United Nations-recognized government in the capital of Tripoli, experts warn Islamic State militants could take advantage of the security vacuum and resurface on the battlefields of Libya. The unrest in Libya flared up last week when rebel leader Haftar ordered the Libyan National Army from the east to move on Tripoli in a victorious march against the Government of National Accord (GNA). Haftars forces have since conducted multiple airstrikes, including on Tripolis Mitiga airport, as clashes continue near the gates of the capital. According to the World Health Organization, the fighting over the past three days has cost at least 47 lives, with 181 others injured. The clashes have also displaced more than 2,000 people from their homes. U.N. childrens agency UNICEF warned that more than a half-million children could be at direct risk if the violence lingers. Meanwhile, experts who watch jihadist movements in Libya say the turmoil near Tripoli and the risk of the country falling into a broader civil war could create a vacuum that IS militants would exploit to re-emerge after their defeat in 2016. Libya reset Jason Pack, founder of Libya Analysis, said the IS group in Libya has been able to reset, moving through three phases of recovery, reorganization and re-engagement during the past two years. He said the militant group is now ready to come back stronger and make new territorial gains as Tripoli clashes draw security forces away from other parts of the country. I think this current offensive is great for jihadists, Pack told VOA. I see IS and jihadism in Libya now on the verge of making a huge breakthrough, just like they did in 2012-2015 after killing (U.S.) Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, and then jihadism flourished in many outlets in Libya. The U.S. ambassador was killed in September 2012 when the U.S. mission in Benghazi came under a militant attack by Ansar al-Sharia an Islamist group whose members mostly pledged allegiance to IS after controlling the city of Sirte in 2015. IS was cleared from Sirte and other populated areas of Libya by late 2016 in a campaign that took months and considerable aerial support from the U.S. The group has since withdrawn to isolated desert areas and shifted its tactics from controlling land to guerrilla insurgency. Through its low-level attacks on Libyan forces and local infrastructure, the group is hoping to use a war of attrition to prevent any future progress in Libyan state-building, Pack said. As such, through low-cost and high-impact attacks, it poses a greater threat to Libyan state-building processes in 2019 than it did in 2016. IS more recently has increased efforts to target key government institutions, including the 2018 attacks on the Libyan Foreign Ministry, the National Oil Corp. and the High National Electoral Commission. Its low-profile attacks have mostly targeted security forces and local leaders in remote areas. The group Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack on al-Fugaha in southeast Tripoli, killing three men, including the towns local council leader and its security official. The town, under Haftars Libyan National Army, suffered another deadly IS attack last October. That attack on April 9 shows that already ISIS is able to tactically take advantage of the LNA troops being deployed to for this offensive in the north. It shows whats likely to happen if this fighting continues, that there will be a vacuum, and IS is perfectly positioned to take advantage of that, Pack, of Libya Analysis, said. Lawless environment Some experts warn that Libyas southern desert areas are particularly vulnerable to IS re-emergence because of their lawless environment. The vast territory has also served as a safe haven for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram, and the opposition fighters from Chad, Mali and Sudan. Haftars LNA forces earlier this year launched a large-scale attack on the Fezzan region, which made IS supply networks in the south more complicated. WATCH: Libyan Strongman Khalifa Haftar Hady Amr, an expert with the Brookings Institution who served as deputy head for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said the clashes in Tripoli could easily undo the progress made against the jihadists in the distant areas of the country. While militant Islam has proven effective at adaptation, and while religion continues to have an appeal in a scary and rapidly transforming world, it is most likely to be most effective in the far-flung areas of Libya, Amr told VOA. It rises up and seeks to exploit the vacuum created by new developments when other factions are in conflict, he added. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. The live-streamed video of the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooting last month highlighted the continuing struggle by social media companies to police extremist content on their platforms. Facebook and Google are trying to balance free speech with oversight of white supremacist content. News outlets say Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has resigned after nearly four months of demonstrations against his autocratic 30-year rule. Both the Associated Press and Reuters say they have learned from government sources that the 75-year-old ruler will step down and that consultations are underway to form a transitional council. Reports of al-Bashirs ouster came hours after Sudans state-controlled television said the army will make an important statement sometime Thursday, but offered no details about the upcoming message. Thousands of residents of Khartoum poured into the streets of the Sudanese capital and marched to the headquarters of the countrys military, where protesters have staged a sit-in since last Saturday. At least 22 people have been killed in clashes with security forces, according to activists. There are reports that army vehicles carrying troops have surrounded the presidential palace, which is on the grounds of the military headquarters. Reuters and the French News Agency (Agence France Presse) are reporting that soldiers have raided the headquarters of al-Bashirs ruling party. Sudan's state-run media is also reporting that the security agency will soon set free all of the country's political prisoners. The protests began Dec. 19, with demonstrators accusing al-Bashirs government of economic mismanagement that has sparked skyrocketing food prices, and fuel and foreign currency shortages. Al-Bashir, who came to power in an Islamist coup in 1989, imposed a nationwide state of emergency Feb. 22 in an attempt to suppress the protests after an initial crackdown failed. The government said weeks ago that 31 people had been killed, but the group Physicians for Human Rights estimates the death toll is at least 60. Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in connection with atrocities in the western region of Darfur. Vietnamese exporters are eyeing Canada as ripe for profits thanks to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), experts said at a conference held in Ho Chi Minh City on April 10. According to Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trades Multilateral Trade Policy Department Ngo Chung Khanh, the CPTPP brings higher added value than Vietnams other bilateral and multilateral trade pacts. Canada is having high potential for Vietnamese exports like garments and textiles, leather shoes and seafood. Canadian consumers can pay for high-value products, he said, adding that it is an important bridge for Vietnamese firms to expand their markets in America. Meanwhile, Bui Tuan Hoan, an official from the Ministrys European-American Market Department, said demand for Asian food has been rising in Canada due to the increase in the population of Asian-Canadian people, while Canadian taxes on most tropical fruits will drop to 0 percent, and few strict technical barriers are erected in the country. Vietnamese fruits will thrive in the Canadian market if exporters pay due attention to improving preservation and transport processes, he said. Along with two traditional products of frozen shrimp and tra fish, which have gained a foothold in this market, Hoan said shipping processed seafood and top-quality products like tuna, cuttlefish and octopus are avenues worth exploring. He stressed exports of garments and leather shoes, saying they are the main beneficiaries of the CPTPP. Import duties on garment and textiles will fall from 16-17 percent to 0 percent in four years while that on leather shoes dwindle from 18 percent to 0 percent in 7-11 years. Under the trade pact, Canada pledges to remove 94.5 percent of tax lines levied on Vietnamese products, and after four years, Vietnam will be exempt from some 96.3 percent of the tax lines. There is huge room for Vietnam and Canada to cooperate in wood processing and exports, he said, suggesting Vietnam enhance imports of Canadian wood for domestic processing and re-export to the country. Although there are ample opportunities for Vietnamese businesses in Canada, experts said companies should thoroughly grasp importers requirements on product origin and labels. Trinh Thi Thu Hien from the Ministrys Foreign Trade Agency said that besides prices and product quality, Canadian customers look to exporters prestige, experience, and ability to provide post-sale services when purchasing products. According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam-Canada trade tripled from 1.14 billion USD in 2010 to 3.85 billion USD last year, with Vietnams trade surplus at 2.14 billion USD in 2018. Trade links between the two countries have improved after they joined the CPTPP. In the first two months of 2019, Vietnams exports to Canada exceeded 506 million USD, up 36.6 percent year on year. The CPTPP, which took effect in Vietnam on January 14, 2019 gathers 11 member states, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam that altogether make up 13.5 percent of global GDP.-VNA On the night we met, the performance required no urgent gathering of herself. In our section of the theater, the professor caused a bit of a stir among those who recognized him. Hes a frequent presence these days on cable news networks, where he sometimes talks about his latest book, To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment. (A bottom line of the book, written with Joshua Matz: The threshold is dauntingly high.) An indication of who else attends What the Constitution Means to Me was provided by a woman in front of us, who introduced herself as Dayna Steele, a Democrat who just ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives in a conservative Texas district. Somehow, seeing the play with Tribe over her shoulder seemed to add to the evenings drama. American Masters: Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People (WETA and WMPT at 9:30) Learn about the man after whom the prestigious awards are named. He could be sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility while his case goes through the courts, or he could be released on bond. That determination will be made by DHS, but Palazzo said he hopes the man could be released because he has family in the United States and a sponsor willing to accept him. The slowdowns at the border have come as the Department of Homeland Security has faced political upheaval amid a record surge of migrants that included apprehensions topping 100,000 last month. The crossings have infuriated the president, leading to the ouster of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who officially resigned effective Wednesday, days after Trump rescinded the nomination of her top immigration enforcement deputy, Ronald Vitiello. He announced his resignation Wednesday. The next acting commissioner of CBP will be John Sanders, the agencys chief operating officer, a DHS official said Wednesday. Chad later told me that Marys practice of polyamory had almost nothing to do with his decision. If the scenario was right, he said, he would have considered it. What was more concerning to him was her religious fervor. Chad recognized that church was as much a part of Marys routine as adult camp was a part of his, and he couldnt imagine how they would even have time for each other. It kind of proves my point about not wanting to talk about what you do for work but what you do for fun, he said. Im not going to not date a lawyer, but Im probably not going to date a Sunday school teacher. Baking soda is an awesome odor neutralizer. Keep plenty on hand; its cheap, safe and readily available. Ive compiled a collection of my best baking soda recipes and hints into a handy pamphlet! Would you like to receive one? Visit Heloise.com to order, or send $5, along with a long, self-addressed, stamped (70 cents) envelope, to: Heloise/Baking Soda, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. Use this formula immediately and discard any you have left over, as it wont hold up over time. Oh, and the old standby of tomato juice for skunk smell? Doesnt work. Is the WikiLeaks founder, who until Thursday had been holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for years, essentially a publisher though a notably strange one who believes in taking radical steps to expose government secrets, and who thus should be afforded the same First Amendment protections given to news organizations? American Media CEO David Pecker and Burkle, who were partners in the now shuttered Radar Magazine and Radar.com, have spoken once in the wake of the Enquirers announcement, said a person close to the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to speak about them publicly. In that discussion, Burkle expressed his displeasure that his name is being bandied about as a possible buyer, the person added. Measles easily spreads through sneezes and coughs and can live on some surfaces for up to two hours after contamination. The disease is transmitted when people who have not been vaccinated come into contact with others, so areas around international airports or proximity to communities who shun vaccines are of particular concern. Hamilton, 35, said he will be paying $2,600 per month to rent a 690-square-foot apartment, about $1,000 more than his rent in the Maryland suburbs. Even as a seasoned teacher making a base salary of about $116,000, the prospect of becoming a homeowner in the nations capital is daunting for him and for other employees of the school system. This says to me, that they just dont care. If you or I have somebody break into our home or invade our privacy, what do we do? We get an alarm system. We get a camera. We do something that addresses that security concern before somebody comes back. But in response to all these violent crimes that have taken place near Clay Terrace, they have not taken any steps to prevent such violence. If they had done anything, it may have led to individuals being deterred from creating the acts that resulted in the death of Makiyah, McDaniel said. Gregarious by nature and quick with a hug, Jackson has been reserved in prison and often kept to herself to avoid being pulled into trouble, she said. She is even more restrained now to circumvent the chaos that could ruin her chance for release. She skips movies and other gatherings, returning instead to her cell after her cleaning job. Ryan Fayhee, who previously worked in the Justice Departments counterespionage section, said the charge also probably will make it easier to extradite Assange, who was arrested Thursday morning at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London after years spent in asylum there. British authorities would not hand over Assange to the United States if they deem the offense with which he is charged a political one, Fayhee said, but the cyber charge is clean for extradition purposes crime here, crime in the U.K. to seek to intrude upon a protected computer. An arrest affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court says Joseph Smith told police that he and his brother had been fighting and that Arnold Smith had me on the floor. Joseph Smith said he stabbed his brother while trying to fight him off, according to the affidavit. Police said they found a knife at the scene. In news interviews, including ones given after his 100th birthday, Col. Cole often resisted efforts to celebrate his role in the Doolittle Raid, directing attention toward his commander and toward the servicemen who did not survive the war. The way this whole thing ended up, he once told the Dallas Morning News, we were just a bunch of guys doing our jobs. Curtis Leon Harrison, who police said has no fixed address, died at a hospital shortly after he was found unconscious about 9 p.m. at a bus stop in the 3400 block of Benning Road NE. The area is near the Mayfair community and DC-295. Police said that the car sped off after the officer fired her weapon and that it was stopped a few miles away on University Boulevard. Only one person was in the vehicle, and that person was taken into custody, police said. Police did not release that persons name. A police spokesman said one youth was shot in either the shoulder or the side and was conscious and breathing when taken to a hospital. Police said the boy was about 14, but a precise age could not immediately be determined. The older, larger fish are the spawning females, and the more eggs she lays, the more she produces, but you have to make sure you have fish that are breeding for the next generation, so you cant have all the large females caught, Bolen said. Hogan (R) has touted toll lanes as the only way the state can afford to provide significant relief on some of the most congested highways in the state. He has said the lanes, which are estimated to cost $9 billion to $11 billion, would cost the state nothing because the private partner would finance their construction and build and operate them in exchange for keeping the toll revenue. U.S. District Judge Kristi K. DuBose issued the 60-day delay two hours before the scheduled lethal injection of Christopher Lee Price, 46. Prices attorneys argued that Alabamas lethal injection drug combination has led to botched executions and asked that Price instead be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia, a method the state has authorized but not used. New York City has had 285 cases, virtually all of them in Brooklyn, since the outbreak began in October. Of those, 229 were reported this year, accounting for nearly half of the 465 cases that have been reported nationwide in 2019. Now, measles has been found in more than a third of U.S. states up and down both coasts, and across the plains, the Midwest and the South with most of the illnesses in children. One killed by explosion after gas leak: Firefighters in Durham, N.C., responding to a gas leak were evacuating people from a building Wednesday morning when it exploded, killing one and injuring more than a dozen others, officials said. Fire Chief Robert Zoldos said the blast at 10:07 a.m. involved five buildings on the block and catastrophically damaged one. He said one firefighter was seriously injured and in surgery but was expected to recover. A contractor boring under a sidewalk had hit a 2-inch gas line, causing the leak, police said. Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah also said the military will watch over the process of transition but suggested it does not want to intervene. He said it is unreasonable to organize elections in the three-month period allotted by the constitution without institutional guidance, such as that of Bensalah. Myanmar rebels said to attack police base: Three people were killed and seven civilians abducted in an attack in western Myanmar that authorities blame on the Arakan Army rebel group, local media reported. A report in the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said about 200 insurgents, who claim to represent the Rakhine ethnic minority in the western state of Rakhine, attacked a police headquarters. Rakhine is best known for a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the military against the Muslim Rohingya minority, which caused more than 700,000 to flee to Bangladesh. The Arakan Army is aligned with Rakhine's Buddhist population and seeks autonomy for the region. These developments have not taken place in a vacuum. They have been recklessly aided and abetted by President Trump, whose indiscriminate support for Netanyahu and the Israeli far right has been characterized by total disregard for long-standing U.S. policy, international law and regional stability. The administrations decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem outside of a negotiated framework, close the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem and end support for all humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were part of a strategy to force Palestinians to abandon their aspirations for their future. And this dangerous, shortsighted approach has continued. Just this week, at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would not confirm whether the administration would oppose any plan to unilaterally annex the West Bank a long-held U.S. position critical, among other things, to preserving any prospect for a two-state solution. Sudan needs a clean break with the past and a credible transitional government that can appeal for international economic aid, as well as construct an open and pluralistic system. Mr. Ibn Auf is not that leader, and the transition need not take the two years he announced. If he is to avoid more popular unrest, he should appoint civilians to lead the transition; the Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded the revolt, could provide new leaders. The group denounced Mr. Ibn Aufs decision to head an interim regime, saying it was a coup to reproduce the faces and institutions that our great people revolted against. There have been some encouraging signs that the gun lobbys control over lawmakers may be waning in the face of growing effectiveness of grass-roots movements for gun safety. Hopefully, the resolve shown by New Zealand will serve as a model. It is notable, for example, that the government there consulted with the countrys hunting and rural communities about the impact of an assault-weapons ban and the general consensus was that military-style weapons were not really necessary. Indeed, even before the ban was enacted, some gun owners surrendered their semiautomatic weapons. Tweeted one farmer: Until today I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semi-automatic rifle. On the farm, they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesnt outweigh the risk of misuse. We dont need these in our country. Contrary to much pro-WikiLeaks propaganda, Mr. Assange had no legitimate fears for his life, either at the hands of CIA assassins or, via extradition, the U.S. death penalty, when he fled to the embassy of what was then an anti-American government. Rather, he was avoiding transfer to Sweden pursuant to a seemingly credible sexual assault charge lodged against him in that country. He then proceeded to abuse the hospitality of his South American hosts, most egregiously by presiding over what an indictment by U.S. special counsel Robert S. Mueller III described as Russian intelligences use of WikiLeaks as a front for its interference in the U.S. election. Democratic Party documents stolen by the Russians made their way into the public domain under the WikiLeaks label. Ecuadors new, more pragmatic president, Lenin Moreno, cited Mr. Assanges more recent alleged involvement in the release of confidential Vatican documents, along with threats against the government in Quito, as reasons to oust him. The Jefferson County facility will meet or exceed all federal and state environmental standards. Rockwool has operated in North America for more than 30 years and for more than 80 years globally, with a strong track record of safeguarding the environment and the health and well-being of the communities in which we operate, and of going above and beyond what is asked of us. This includes our own internal standards, which often exceed regulatory requirements. In Jefferson County, emissions will be well below allowable maximums, and we are voluntarily installing air-quality monitors one year before operations begin to establish a baseline against which to compare actual emissions. When it comes to tackling todays domestic terrorists, tough legislation and resolute presidential leadership are undoubtedly vital. As an authority on the period of Reconstruction, however, Charles Lane should know better than to hold up the Enforcement Acts as an effective response to white-supremacist terrorism in the post-Civil War South, as he did in his April 9 op-ed, Americas first war on terror by the KKK. This legislation may have enabled the Grant administration to break up the Ku Klux Klan, but it did not curb white terrorism. In addition to his work in medicine, Arthur was an avid art collector and connoisseur. During the 1950s, he started several personal foundations for the arts, sciences and humanities. During the 1960s, he funded the first Asian art gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in an era when Asian art was underappreciated in the United States. In the 1980s, he donated 1,000 remarkable pieces of Asian art to the Smithsonian Institution and helped fund the construction of a museum to house them. He died a few months before the museum bearing his name opened on the Mall. But the composition of the Democratic Party is changing, which is likely why, even as some Democratic candidates talk God on the trail, Hillary Clintons team reportedly chose to run a post-Christian campaign in 2016. While white evangelical Christians make up the single largest religious bloc in the Republican Party (and have for decades), the biggest single bloc in the Democratic Party belongs to nones, who claim no religious affiliation. And their share is growing. In 1997, nones made up just 9 percent of the party; in 2017, 33 percent. Democrats do not appear to be growing more religious with time; neither does it appear likely that any particular religious constituency will gain the kind of dominance within the party that evangelical Christians have achieved on the right. An endorsement from a member of the Democratic Party could serve Collins well in a state that tends to trend Democratic, especially in presidential election years. For that reason, Collins is considered one of the most vulnerable senators running in 2020. Manchins support for her is essentially saying hes willing to risk the Democrats chance of taking the Senate. Skadden in January reached a settlement with the Justice Department, admitting it should have registered for its work in 2012 and 2013, and agreed to turn over the $4.6 million in fees it made for the report in exchange for facing no criminal charges. In its settlement, Skadden agreed that Justices 2014 finding that the firm did not need to register came after the agency relied on false and misleading oral and written statements made by Craig. Craig, 74, is the first prominent Democratic figure to be charged as a result of a foreign lobbying investigation spun out of Muellers probe. The investigation led to the prosecution of Manafort, who was sentenced last month to a total of 7 years in prison for lobbying violations and financial crimes, and to a plea last year by another former Skadden lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, who admitted to lying to the FBI. Asked if he would accept a smaller deal that fell short of that goal to keep talks going, Trump responded: Id have to see what the deal is. There are various smaller deals that could happen. . . . You could work out step-by-step pieces, but at this moment were talking about the big deal. The big deal is we have to get rid of nuclear weapons. Plenty of fundraising emails from Democrats and Republicans alike are hyperbolic, misleading or contain demonstrable errors, Levinthal, who is an expert in money in politics, said in an email to The Post. This is the first Ive seen that puts a sitting congresswoman on par with mass murderers who blow up buildings or kill schoolchildren. Low-cost carrier Vietjet has announced its operation plan for the Hong Kong market and the launch of a new route linking Phu Quoc and Hong Kong, one of Asia's most well-known destinations. The Phu Quoc-Hong Kong route will operate return flights with a frequency of four flights per week, starting from April 19. With a flight time of two hours and 45 minutes per leg, the flight will depart Phu Quoc at 10:50am and land in Hong Kong at 2:35pm (local time) while the return flight will depart from Hong Kong at 3:40pm and arrive in Phu Quoc at 5:25pm (all local times). After nearly three years of operating our HCM City-Hong Kong route, Vietjet has gained the love and trust of Hong Kong residents, business people and international tourists, and has contributed positively to the promotion of air travel and trade between Vietnam and Hong Kong as well as across the region, said Luu Duc Khanh, Vietjets managing director. Khanh said the airline has thus far transported more than 300,000 passengers on this route, which includes a significant number of transit passengers who boarded in Hong Kong. The director said the new direct route between Phu Quoc and Hong Kong, the first direct flight connecting the two destinations, will enhance the flying experience and reduce travel time for passengers, as well as offer flight opportunities for millions of people. Victor Liu, deputy director of the General of Civil Aviation Authority in Hong Kong, said that Vietnam and Hong Kong have enjoyed very good and long-standing economic and social relations. With the addition of the direct passenger services between Hong Kong and Phu Quoc, it will no doubt further enrich the bilateral links between Hong Kong and Vietnam, he said. Known as the Pearl Island, Phu Quoc is the biggest island in Vietnam. As one of the most talked-about tourism destinations in Asia with beautiful beaches and friendly local people, Phu Quoc in the southern province of Kien Giang has attracted strong levels of investment in hotels and resorts in recent years and has become one of the most popular holiday destinations in the country. Adding to the islands appeal, international travellers are exempt from visas for visits of 30 days or less.-VNA I know nothing about WikiLeaks, Trump told reporters. Its not my thing. I know there is something to do with Julian Assange. Ive been seeing whats happened with Assange. And that will be a determination, I imagine, mostly by the attorney general. Downing Street officials have been in secret talks with their White House counterparts about the timing of the visit since late last year and are expected to make a joint announcement within days, the paper reported Sunday. Mike Whealon, a Case senior lead craftsman, was on the Pickler job daily. We bend over backward to make clients comfortable, he said. Most of the noisiest and messiest work the demolition was done the first week. During construction, the nail gun compressor stayed outside to reduce noise in the house. When the water needed to be turned off for a while or something noisy was scheduled, Whealon worked out the timing with Marcy and Nedra to reduce inconvenience. He cleaned the job site daily. Officials say the government has also begun working to bring Islamic seminaries under the state education system, requiring them to modernize their curriculum and register with the government. Such actions could help assuage Indian fears while complying with an international task force that has strong influence on foreign lending and that has threatened to blacklist Pakistan in May if it does not do more to crack down on religious extremism. In response to the doctors call for a handgun ban, Giltaca posted a video on the coalition website describing how it might be enforced. He outlined a hypothetical scenario in which authorities in full military gear with semi-auto rifles come to seize weapons from Canadian homes. He warned that they might mistake a childs phone or a remote control for a gun and shoot the child through the neck. The day before, May was forced by European Union leaders to accept a delay of up to six months for the Brits to extract themselves once and for all from the European Union. Now, getting meager credit for sparing her country the pain of a no-deal departure scheduled for the end of the week had she not groveled in Brussels, she resumed her daily toil. Standing in front of lawmakers in the House of Commons, she offered no new twists to her strategy, as one ardent Brexiteer called her trip to the E.U. capital an abject surrender. Another hint that Assange was wearing out his welcome came in March 2018, when Ecuador cut off his Internet access, saying he had breached an agreement not to interfere in the affairs of other states. The embassy did not specify what Assange had done, but the move came after he tweeted criticism of Britains assessment that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of a Russian former double agent and his daughter in the city of Salisbury. A: To be absolutely fair to the British, I cant think of any other historical parallel, anywhere, where a country wins a major war a world war that was existential for humanity, where the British are heroic, where they are on the winning side and yet within just 10 years, youre looking at the defeated Axis powers Italy, Japan, Germany and they are all outstripping Britain economically. They are all in the middle of these extraordinary industrial miracles, and the British are stuck, the British are in relative decline. Add to that the insult of losing their empire. So this is not an experience that anyone else has had. And it does leave this sense of: How come we won and didnt get what we should get? Which is a special status in Europe for having been the winners. This feeling is mostly aimed at Germany. We rescued you. We rescued the French; we rescued the Dutch. Pretty much everybody in Western Europe owes us for their liberation, and yet they are not treating us as the first among equals that we should be in Europe. For a while, an oil boom helped buoy Ecuadors economy. But the price of oil and other commodities fell, and by the time Moreno was elected president in 2017, he was forced to reckon not only with the geopolitical legacy of his predecessor but also with an economic recession. Weve reached the moon, but we want to land more comfortably, and there will be another attempt. The very experience is a tremendous achievement, and we will become the fourth country to land on the moon if we persevere, he said. As far as Im concerned, the eagle has landed, the state of Israel is taking off next time even better. The Supreme Leader urged the need for leading officials to fully display a high sense of responsibility and creativity, and the revolutionary spirit of self- reliance and fortitude in an attitude befitting the masters of the revolution and construction under the prevailing tense situation and thus follow through on the new strategic line of the party, KCNA reported on his speech to the ruling Politburo. Carrs appointment comes after a tight election in Israel won by the Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the final days of the campaign, Netanyahu said Israel would annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in testimony before congressional committees this week, declined to say whether the administration opposes the annexation or still supports a resolution based on a separate state for Palestinians. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino also declined to directly address the policies. In fact, Trump was one of WikiLeaks most vocal supporters on the campaign trail, once confessing to supporters at a rally in Ohio that he almost didnt get off his plane because they were just announcing new WikiLeaks, and I wanted to stay there, but I didnt want to keep you waiting. And the administration remains unbowed. It signaled with its housecleaning of the Department of Homeland Security that its going to get tougher, with Trump reportedly considering another move that would split up families at the border. He also threatened to close the border with Mexico entirely, even as he faces at least seven lawsuits against his attempt to spend unappropriated money for a border wall through his declaration of a national emergency. Smith has never opposed the idea of focusing more attention on developing space capabilities in concept, though he has balked at the idea of establishing an entirely new department to achieve that goal since Trump began to float it. The administrations current plan is structurally more in line with the proposals Smith has expressed willingness to discuss, even if he thinks the construct of the proposal is flawed. Fast-forward to the 2000s. The population control turned out to have worked too well, bringing fertility way below the two-child replacement level. In November 2009, the government announced a comprehensive plan for low birthrate that included a crackdown on abortion. Later that year, a group of physicians formed the Pro-Life Doctors Association and started naming clinics performing abortion. The government turned from encouraging to discouraging abortion as societal needs changed, subjecting a womans body to arbitrary interference from the state at political whim, Koh said. The way I explain [this letter] to myself is that the pope emeritus has at last responded to so many requests from a vast part of the public opinion, both lay people and believers from all over the world who have addressed him throughout these years because they felt like orphans, said Marcello Pera, a friend of Benedict and former president of the Italian Senate. He, after many years, has finally responded: I am here. Wesfarmers' controversial $1.5 billion takeover bid for Lynas Corporation has attracted the attention of the corporate regulator, which raised questions last week about the companies' confidential discussions held before the offer was made public and Lynas directors bought stock in their company. Wesfarmers, the $38 billion Perth-based conglomerate behind companies including Target and Bunnings, went public with its $2.25 a share offer on March 26. Lynas chairman Mike Harding rejected the bid as "opportunistic". It has become one of the more colourful takeover battles in recent memory involving allegations Wesfarmers employed aggressive tactics, including inappropriately involving the Malaysian government. Lynas chief executive Amanda Lacaze. Credit:Peter Braig Sources familiar with the negotiations between the two companies that took place before the bid was made public say Wesfarmers first approached Lynas, which mines rare earth minerals in Western Australia and runs a refining operation in Malaysia, about a joint venture in August last year. These talks failed to result in an agreement. 'Buy now, pay later' platforms have changed life for shoppers and now small businesses will be courted with the same model. "What we're seeing now is businesses getting really crunched around payment terms...it's like there's a freeze or a jolt in the system," Cloudfloat founder Aleem Habibullah says. Fintechs are increasingly targeting businesses with buy now, pay later tech. Credit:Quentin Jones Cloudfloat is preparing to soft launch its fintech product at the end of the month. The startup will pay business invoices directly and then small businesses will pay it back in instalments over periods up to 90 days. As the push for shorter payment times intensifies, Habibullah says some companies are struggling to keep up. Georgia Collins, 2, was last seen in Hampton Park on Wednesday. Credit:Victoria Police A toddler missing in Melbourne's south-east since Wednesday has been located with her mother. On Friday, police issued a photo of two-year-old Georgia Collins, who was last seen in Hampton Park in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Police said they believed Georgia was with her mother and that the pair may have visited the Hampton Park and Lynbrook areas, about 35 kilometres south-east of Melbourne, near Narre Warren. On Saturday morning, police confirmed the child and her mother had been located "safe and well" and thanked the public for their assistance. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten insists his party is "united" ahead of the election despite a looming crisis in the key battleground state of Queensland, where uncertainty over Labor's position on the Adani coal mine could put key seats at risk. The Queensland mining division of the powerful Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union on Thursday issued an ultimatum to Labor candidates in the state, asking that they sign a pledge outlining their support for coal industry jobs. Coal miner Russell Robertson is Labor's candidate in the Queensland seat of Capricornia. Credit:Glenn Hunt Third generation coal miner Russell Robertson was the only Queensland Labor candidate to have signed the pledge at the time of publication. When interviewed, Mr Robertson - who is running in the ultra-marginal seat of Capricornia, held by Liberal National MP Michelle Landry - steered carefully around the topic of Adani's planned Carmichael mine. Scott Morrison enters this election hoping the Liberal Party's improving electoral fortunes along the Georges River in south-west Sydney can hold for a few more weeks. The May poll will concentrate attention on at least five Sydney electorates considered a decent chance of changing hands. The most marginal of the Liberal seats at risk is Banks, which hugs the north of the Georges Rivers between Kogarah and Bankstown in southern Sydney an area that has increasingly tended to vote conservative in state and federal elections. Banks was held by an uninterrupted run of Labor candidates between 1949 and 2013 but has since been won twice by Liberal representative, David Coleman, who was last year promoted into the role of Immigration Minister. Beijing: A Chinese coal industry official has criticised Australia for biting the hand that feeds it at a coal conference in Beijing, a rare public acknowledgement that diplomatic tensions could be the cause of slowing trade. "You cant earn Chinese money and then politically make irresponsible comments about China and become unfriendly," said Cui Pijiang, director of the China Coking Industry Association. High quality: Chinese workers taking samples of imported Australian coal at a port in Rizhao. Credit:AP "Im afraid this is something the Chinese government cant tolerate." The unloading of Australian coal at Chinese ports has slowed since January, hitting prices, but the Chinese government has denied any ban on Australian coal. Vatican City: Former Pope Benedict has blamed the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal on the effects of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, homosexual cliques in seminaries and what he called a general collapse in morality. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI arrives in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican to attend the beatification ceremony of Pope Paul VI this week. Credit:AP Critics accused Benedict, who before becoming pope in 2005 was for 23 years in charge of the Vatican doctrinal office that has been widely criticised for its handling of abuse cases, of trying to shift blame away from the church. But in a rare essay, he said the Church's legal system had at times been overly protective of accused clerics, citing what he called judicial guarantees that were "extended to such an extent that convictions were hardly possible". The 91-year-old, who in 2013 became the first pope in six centuries to resign, argued that the sexual revolution had led some to believe paedophilia and pornography were acceptable. He also said that an openly gay culture in some Catholic seminaries meant they had failed to train priests properly. But he also said the UK government had promised, in writing, that Assange would not be extradited "to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty". The Ecuador government last year set strict conditions on Assange's behaviour within the embassy, which Moreno said Assange had broken. "He particularly violated the [rule] of not intervening in the internal affairs of other states," Moreno said. "The most recent incident occurred in January 2019 when WikiLeaks leaked Vatican documents. "Key members of that organisation visited Mr Assange before and after such illegal acts. This and other publications have confirmed the world's suspicion that Mr Assange is still linked to WikiLeaks." Loading Moreno said Assange had "confronted and mistreated guards" at the embassy, had accessed security files at the embassy without permission, and had kept a secret mobile phone to communicate to the outside world. He also installed electronic and "distortion" equipment in a bid to foil embassy surveillance, and blocked security cameras. WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson said it was "completely bogus" to claim Assange had violated the terms of his asylum. "You don't just decide to impose terms for asylum years after the fact," he told an Icelandic news site. "This is a violation of international laws and norms and flies in the face of moral decency." The US Attorney's Office issued a statement saying Assange was arrested on an extradition request "in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified US government computer". The indictment, long anticipated and finally detailed in public court documents on Thursday, alleges that Assange agreed to help Manning crack the password on a secret Department of Defence computer network, where the whistleblower was downloading classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks. Loading A spokesman for the UK Home Office said it was government policy that nobody would be extradited to a country where they would face torture or the death penalty. However, he declined to confirm if any further promises had been made on Assange. Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Assange would continue to receive consular support from Australia, and officials will seek to visit him in detention. "I am confident... that Mr Assange will receive due process in the legal proceedings he faces in the United Kingdom," she said. UK Prime Minister Theresa May said the arrest "goes to show that in the United Kingdom no one is above the law". UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt praised Ecuador's "courageous" decision to withdraw their protection. "Julian Assange is no hero, he has hidden from the truth for years and years," he said. "This will now be decided properly, independently, by the British legal system which is respected around the world for its independence and integrity." Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who lives in Moscow under an asylum deal after he leaked classified information in 2013, called the arrest a "dark moment for press freedom". The arrest comes less than a day after WikiLeaks revealed its founder was under intense surveillance at the embassy, with a trove of private documents and video finding their way to a group of alleged Spanish extortionists. Loading Last week Moreno indirectly blamed WikiLeaks for helping circulate hacked photos of "my bedroom, what I eat and how my wife and daughters and friends dance", which spread on social media. Assange entered the embassy on June 19, 2012 and was granted political asylum after exhausting his appeals against an extradition order to go to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations. A court issued a warrant for his arrest in London for breach of his bail conditions. Swedish authorities have since closed their investigation saying it couldn't continue without Assange's presence in their country. However it is possible they could renew calls for him to come to Sweden to face court over one allegation. Elisabeth Fritz, the lawyer for a woman who accused Assange in 2010, said it was "a shock to my client that what we have been waiting and hoping for since 2012 has now finally happened". "We are now going to do everything we possibly can to get the Swedish police investigation re-opened so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape," she said. "No rape victim should have to wait nine years to see justice be served." A police van parked outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London after Julian Assange was arrested. Credit:PA Another woman who accused Assange of sexual assault in 2010 said she would be "surprised and sad" if he was handed over to the US. "For me this was never about anything else than his misconduct against me/women and his refusal to take responsibility for this," Anna Ardin said. "Too bad my case could never be investigated properly, but it's already been closed." The Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) will organise its general shareholders meeting in Quarter 2, officially changing its trading name to Vietnam Maritime Corporation (VIMC). The corporations revenue during January-March was reported at nearly 2.9 trillion VND (124.8 million USD), including more than 1.2 trillion VND (51.65 million USD) generated from maritime transport, over 1 trillion VND (43 million USD) from sea ports, and the remaining from maritime services. The sea transport volume was estimated at about 5.2 tonnes, while 24 million tonnes of goods were handled via sea ports. According Vinalines leader, profit gained in the maritime service sector only accounted for 8.5 percent of the set plan, and this was due to unstable cost following a week-long lunar new year (Tet) holiday and fierce competition in the container freight station (CFS) market. The company is making preparation for the shareholders meeting while working with the Ministry of Finance on identifying the joint stock companys chartered capital. The State-owned shipping giant Vinaliness equitisation plan received approval from the Prime Minister on June 20, 2018, paving the way for the firm to attract strategic investors. After the firm is equitised, the state will hold 65 percent of the firm's charter capital, while strategic investors can acquire 14.8 percent. Vinalines will be renamed to Vietnam Maritime Corporation (VIMC). At present, Vinalines operates 14 seaports nationwide and owns the largest area of maritime storages in Vietnam through nine associated companies and subsidiaries. It also owns a fleet of 84 vessels accounting for 25 percent of the total deadweight tonnage of the domestic sea transport market. - VNA WSU Graduates Honored at 153rd Commencement April 11, 2019 OGDEN, Utah Weber State University officials expect the class of 2018-19 to total more than 5,988 graduates. So far, 3,160 students have applied for spring graduation and will be honored April 26 at the 153rd commencement at 8 a.m. in the Dee Events Center. Individual college convocations will be held at various times throughout the day at four campus locations: Dee Events Center, Val A. Browning Center Austad Auditorium, Shepherd Union Wildcat Theater and Shepherd Union Ballrooms. The times and locations of the college convocations are listed at weber.edu/commencement. Graduates may pick up their free cap, gown and tassel at Grad Finale, April 16 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. in Shepherd Union Ballrooms A and B. All graduates attending commencement will receive a pewter die cast medallion with the presidential seal in honor of their achievement. The commencement speaker is Weber State alumna Jeanne Hall 69. Hall spent nearly 20 years as a counselor for the Ogden School District. She is the co-chair of the Alan & Jeanne Hall Foundation, a family-run nonprofit organization with the objective to improve the lives of low-income families by helping them become self-sufficient. Hall has received numerous awards for her philanthropic efforts in the Ogden community. This years student speaker, Austin Nelsen, is a history major who was recognized by the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences as the Most Outstanding Student Researcher and for writing the Best History Thesis of 2019. Nelson plans to pursue a Ph.D. in history following graduation. The 2019 Brady Presidential Distinguished Professors also will be recognized at the ceremony. This years recipients are Leah Murray, political science and philosophy professor and Shi-Hwa Wang, performing arts professor and director of strings studies. A luncheon will be held from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Shepherd Union Building Atrium. Each graduate will receive three complimentary tickets to the luncheon when they pick up their caps and gowns at Grad Finale. Students who are unable to pick up their complimentary tickets at Grad Finale may get them at the Shepherd Union Information Desk from April 18-26. Additional lunch tickets may be purchased at Grad Finale or at the Information Desk for $11 each. The Putting Students Through ceremony, a short program where graduates honor parents, spouses or friends who supported them, will be held April 25 in the Shepherd Union Ballroom at 4 p.m. Campus parking is open to the public free of charge the day of commencement. Shuttle bus service will pick up passengers at the W8 parking lot, south of the Browning Center and Kimball Visual Arts Center, and transport them to the east entrance of the Dee Events Center. Guest tickets are not required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Those who have questions about accommodations for disabilities should contact Becky Thompson at rthompson1@weber.edu. Those who are unable to attend but wish to view commencement can watch a live webcast on the commencement website. Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University. STAMFORD Chemicals and minerals maker Tronox has completed its $1.7 billion acquisition of the titanium dioxide business of Saudi Arabian firm Cristal, after settling a 16-month legal dispute with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The FTC had litigated since December 2017 to block the deal between the previously rival firms, arguing that it would reduce competition in the market for titanium dioxide, a bright-white substance used as a colorant in many consumer and industrial products. But Tronox finally gained the agencys approval to create the worlds largest vertically integrated titanium dioxide producer by agreeing to the $700 million sale of Cristals North American titanium dioxide business whose manufacturing is based in Ashtabula, Ohio to British chemicals firm Ineos Enterprises. The closing of the Cristal acquisition yesterday afternoon was a game-changing transformational moment for our company and our path to creating sustainable long-term value for our shareholders, Tronox CEO and Chairman Jeffry Quinn said on a call Thursday with investment analysts. Today is day one for a new Tronox. At the same time, FTC officials hailed the settlement as the product of key victories for the agency before a federal court and administrative law judge. This agreement will preserve a competitive marketplace, which ultimately benefits consumers in the form of lower prices and higher quality products, FTC Bureau of Competition Director Bruce Hoffman said in a statement. Among other conditions, the pact with the FTC stipulates that Tronox give Ineos the option to acquire rights to use licensed intellectual property to produce chloride-process titanium-dioxide at a new facility outside North America. We think it was an appropriate and reasonable accommodation to address the FTC concerns, Quinn said. But it was also crafted in a way that addressed the appropriate concerns that we might have about the proliferation of our technology. Tronox had previously explored a sale of the Ashtabula complex to titanium dioxide manufacturer Venator Materials. But the two firms could not agree to terms. Venator was also the buyer of Tronoxs Rotterdam, Netherlands-supplied paper-laminate line. Worth about $8 million, that deal was completed last year to secure the European Commissions support of the titanium dioxide acquisition. In addition to the ECs support, Tronox also received regulatory approvals in Australia, China, New Zealand, Turkey, South Korea, Colombia and Saudi Arabia. The deal with Cristal was originally proposed in February 2017. Even though the merger creates a highly concentrated global market, the result in the U.S. is no change, with a slight potential that the buyer (Tronox) can develop into an additional global competitor, said Peter Carstensen, a professor emeritus of law at the University of Wisconsin. The FTC has no duty to the rest of the world. It is a major problem in competition law that no entity has a duty to police the global effects. Tronox was already a major titanium dioxide producer, with its largest such plant based in Hamilton, Miss. Before closing the Cristal deal, Tronox employed about 3,400 worldwide, with its headquarters at 263 Tresser Blvd., in downtown Stamford. The main offices will remain in Stamford, but the company will base 30 percent of its personnel in South Africa, 15 percent in both Europe and Australia and 10 percent, respectively, in east Asia, the Middle East and North America and South America. For all of 2018, Tronox finished with about $1.8 billion in sales, up 7 percent over 2017. It incurred a $7 million loss for the year, which reflected expenses of the same amount tied to the Cristal deal. None of us expected the process to play out as it did, Quinn said. But we played the cards we were dealt and have persevered. Tronox shares closed Thursday at $14.28, up 2 percent from their Wednesday finish. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott 3 1 of 3 / Greenwich Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 File / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 3 GREENWICH A man accused of making off with $10,000 in merchandise from stores on Greenwich Avenue in January was hit with multiple felonies Wednesday, police said. Joshua Spillman, 40, of Roosevelt Square, Mount Vernon, N.Y., is facing charges of larceny, conspiracy and organized retail theft over $10,000. The driver of one of two vehicles involved in a fatal collision Thursday morning on Interstate 91 in New Haven fell asleep at the wheel before crashing and suffering life-threatening injuries. The driver, who later died at the hospital, was identified by Connecticut State Police as 30-year-old Mason Stasik, of Wintergreen Avenue in Hamden. The crash happened shortly after 5 a.m. Stasik was headed south on I-91, just before Exit 6, when he fell asleep, lost control of his vehicle and hit the barrier on the left shoulder of the roadway, according to the state police report of the crash. After hitting the barrier, the vehicle continued into the right center lane, where it came to a stop. A 47-year-old Meriden man was driving in the right center lane, negotiating a curve in the roadway, when he rear-ended Stasiks vehicle. Troopers from Troop I-Bethany responded to the crash scene, along with AMR and New Haven Fire Department personnel. Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media Stasik sustained life-threatening injuries in the crash and was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital where he was pronounced dead. His vehicle had heavy front- and rear-end damage. The Meriden man did not sustain any visible injuries, state police said. His vehicle had heavy front-end damage. The roadway was closed for several hours as a result of the complexity of the collision scene, state police said shortly after the crash. Any witnesses of the crash are asked to call Trooper DeVre at Troop I in Bethany at 203-393-4200. WESTPORT An anti-toll resolution introduced by two members of the Representative Town Meeting is set for a vote in May. The resolution, submitted by RTM members Greg Kraut and Chas Durkin, calls for the group to oppose the imposition of tolls on town residents and those who come to work or shop in Westport. Although without the legal standing to prevent the installation of tolls should the state vote to institute them, the resolution technically a sense of the meeting resolution urges the RTM to send a message to Westports elected representatives to oppose any measure that would impose tolls upon our constituent. (The) Legislature is moving toll legislation along quickly and the public has had no opportunity to express our views, Kraut, a Repulican who challenged Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D, to represent the 136th district in November and lost, said in announcing the legislation. Tolls will force through traffic onto Westport roads and into Westport neighborhoods. Tolls will put a financial burden on people who commute to Westport for work. Money from tolls, if ever adequate to cover construction costs and financing of the gantries, will not go to Metro-North, he said. The resolution is tentatively scheduled to come before the RTM for a vote at the groups May 6 or 7 meeting if time permits, following review of the town budget. First Selectman Jim Marpe said he shares many of the same concerns as Kraut about how tolls may impact Westports traffic and employee base. I think it will be useful to have this debate with people elected presumably to represent their district. Im not entirely sure I know where Westporters as a whole stand on the idea of tolls, so I think a debate around this will be helpful in forming an overall opinion on behalf of the town, Marpe said. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 WESTPORT A proposal to build a 19-condo affordable housing development on the property of a historic Greens Farms home is being held up by the towns Conservation Commission. Additional information was submitted by the applicant, and the commissioners and peer reviewers need more time to analyze the information, Conservation Department Director Alicia Mozian said of the commissions decision to continue the hearing on the 20-26 Morningside Drive South application until its May 9 meeting. Morningside Drives Homes LLC submitted the application in October to Westports Planning and Zoning Department and wrote in the application that they plan to, demolish the farmhouse on 26 Morningside, and in its place, construct 19 three-bedroom townhouse dwelling units in five buildings. Six of the units are proposed to be income restricted, which allows the application to qualify under the 8-30g statute of the Connecticut General Statutes. Westport received a four-year moratorium on 8-30g applications last month, but Morningside Drive Homes submitted its application before the moratorium went into effect on March 15, and thus the statute still applies to the project. In towns without a moratorium, any 8-30g application brought before the towns zoning board can skirt local building regulations and only be denied on traffic, safety or environmental grounds. The Conservation Commissions assessment, therefore, has the power to stop the project or greenlight it to the Planning and Zoning Commission for final review. Were looking obviously at what, if any, impact there is to wetlands and watercourses. That is our purvey. We look at things like water quality, sediment and erosion control, repairing, buffers, flooding, drainage, and grating, Mozian said. Morningsides lawyer, Hartford-based attorney David S. Hoopes, said he believes the commission should approve the application because a number of engineers and soil scientists who have testified before the group say the project will not harm the wetlands whatsoever. Were actually going to improve the flooding situation rather than worsen it, and that is really not subject to scientific debate, Hoopes said. A group of seven Westport residents who live near the proposed project, meanwhile, disagree with Hoopes and have filed as intervenors in the case under the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act. The intervenors even hired their own lawyer, Bridgeport-based attorney Patricia Sullivan, who did not respond to call for comment, in addition to outside experts to testify about the projects impact on the wetlands. This whole area is overflooding with so much construction that these people are trying to really build on top of wetlands. Flooding is a big concern, said Aurea de Souza, one of the residents listed in the intervenor case. The Morningside application will next come before the Conservation Commission on May 9. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 GARDP announces multi-actor partnerships in search of new antibiotics [Geneva/San Francisco/Brisbane/Saarbrucken - 11 April 2019] Multi-actor partnership tests natural products and compound libraries for antibacterial activityDiscovery efforts will focus on World Health Organization's (WHO) priority pathogens The Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) is partnering with Calibr, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), in particular its location Helmholtz-Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), and the University of Queensland's (UQ) Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (CO-ADD) in its efforts to develop and ensure new antibiotics are globally available to all patients who need them. The agreement allows GARDP to access and test Calibr's ReFRAME compound library and HIPS natural products library. Both libraries will be screened by CO-ADD to discover novel compounds or combinations of drugs that will kill the priority pathogens identified by the World Health Organization in critical need for research and development of new antibiotics.1 With few antibiotics in development since the early 1990s, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major and rapidly growing global health challenge that is already making previously easy to treat infections harder to treat. Approximately 700,000 people worldwide die of drug-resistant infections every year and this number is expected to increase significantly in the future.2 Serious bacterial infections, and in particular Gram-negative bacterial infections, have been identified by the WHO as a global public health priority.1 "One of the biggest challenges in the fight against AMR is discovering new antibiotics to treat the critical priority pathogens. That's why it's essential we conduct novel discovery research to populate a robust pipeline," said Professor Laura JV Piddock, Director of Scientific Affairs at GARDP. "We're very excited about today's announcement. Natural products have yielded many of the antibiotics developed for clinical use to date. Through Calibr, we are aiming to identify compounds that will potentiate the activity of an important antibiotic rendered ineffective by resistance." This is GARDP's first discovery collaboration that links partners in Germany and the USA with Australia. Through this screening, GARDP seeks to identify novel compounds suitable for optimization and clinical development as drugs for patients. "There is an urgent need to find new antibiotics against pathogens that have developed drug resistance, and partnering with GARDP is a terrific opportunity to leverage Calibr's ReFRAME collection to explore whether existing drugs can be repurposed as effective antibiotics," says Arnab Chatterjee, Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Calibr, the drug discovery division of Scripps Research. "This is a superb opportunity allowing us to combine the expertise of GARDP, CO-ADD and HZI/HIPS in our search for novel antibiotics, especially against the most threatening pathogens according to WHO's classification. We very much hope that this joint development can be expanded and intensified in the future to also include, for example, additional partners from the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF)," says Prof Rolf Muller, Executive Director, HIPS and Head of Microbial Natural Products Department. "This new partnership is an exciting opportunity for UQ to engage with GARDP and their network of international collaborators, and make a real difference to the fight against antibiotic resistance by conducting novel discovery research," said UQ's President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Hj. "CO-ADD has been highly successful in helping the global chemistry community to identify over 1500 potential new antibiotics since its launch in 2015," said Dr Mark Blaskovich, co-founder of CO-ADD. "We are looking forward to applying our screening expertise to discover new antibiotics within the interesting libraries of compounds identified by GARDP. International initiatives such as this are essential to refuel the antibiotic pipeline, which has been neglected in recent years and placed us dangerously close to a return to the pre-antibiotic era, when even simple infections caused death. "The announcement of this multi-partner agreement comes as over 10,000 experts come together to present their latest findings at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases' annual conference. ### About GARDP GARDP is a not-for-profit research and development organization that addresses global public health needs by developing new or improved antibiotic treatments, while endeavouring to ensure their sustainable access. Initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative, GARDP is an important element of WHO's Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance that calls for new public-private partnerships to encourage research and development of new antimicrobial agents and diagnostics. http://www. gardp. org . About Calibr Calibr represents a first-of-its-kind, nonprofit translational research institute dedicated to creating the next generation of medicines. A division of Scripps Research and situated in the heart of San Diego's Torrey Pines Mesa biomedical research hub, Calibr is uniquely positioned to create and proliferate innovative partnerships. Calibr's research interests span a broad range of human diseases, including cancer, autoimmunity and inflammatory diseases, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, infectious and neglected diseases, as well as age-related and degenerative diseases. About CO-ADD CO-ADD is a global open-access screening initiative launched in February 2015 to uncover significant and rich chemical diversity held outside of corporate screening collections. Established within the Centre for Superbug Solutions at The University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), CO-ADD is led by a multidisciplinary team including Principle Investigators Prof Matthew Cooper and Dr Mark Blaskovich, Project Leader Dr Johannes Zuegg (operations and cheminformatics), and Program Coordinators Dr Alysha Elliott (microbiology) and Dr Karl Hansford (chemistry). CO-ADD offers free testing against five pathogenic bacteria and two fungi, and has tested nearly 300,000 compounds submitted by over 300 academic groups from 45 countries, identifying over 1500 potential new antibiotics. CO-ADD is supported by funding from the Wellcome Trust, UQ and IMB. http://www. co-add. org/ About HIPS Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, are engaged in the study of different mechanisms of infection and of the body's response to infection. Helping to improve the scientific community's understanding of a given bacterium's or virus' pathogenicity is key to developing effective new treatments and vaccines. The HZI is a member of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). http://www. helmholtz-hzi. de/ en The Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) in Saarbrucken is a location of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and was established by the HZI and Saarland University in 2009. Its researchers are searching mainly for new agents against infectious diseases, optimise these agents for application in humans and research ways how these agents can be transported best through the body to the site of action. http://www. helmholtz-hzi. de/ hips Media Contacts GARDP: Susan Frade, sfrade@dndi.org +41 79 640 00 99HZI/HIPS : Susanne Thiele, susanne.thiele@helmholtz-hzi.de, +49 531 531 6181 1400CO-ADD: Dr Mark Blaskovich, m.blaskovich@imb.uq.edu.au, +61 (0)4 1495 5380 References 1 WHO. (2017). Global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to guide research, discovery, and development of new antibiotics. World Health Organization. 2 O'Neill, J. (Chair) (2016). Tackling drug-resistance globally: Final Report and recommendations. This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in the Ivory Coast early on Thursday in the first ever visit by an Egyptian president to the West African country. This is the second leg of a three-nation African tour by the Egyptian president as part of a broader drive to boost political and economic ties with countries in the continent. The first stop was in Guinea earlier this week and the last stop will be Senegal. El-Sisi was received by his Ivorian counterpart Alassane Ouattara and a number of senior government officials in the country's economic capital of Abidjan, his spokesman said in a statement. El-Sisi flew to the Ivory Coast from Washington after he wrapped up a multi-day visit which he described as "fruitful" and said tackled topics of critical importance. This visit is the 25th El-Sisi has made to other African countries since he came to office in 2014, according to Egypts State Information Service (SIS). Ivorian President Ouattara visited Egypt in December 2017 to take part in an African forum in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Egypt was among the first countries to recognise the Ivory Coast's independence from France in 1960. Trade volume between the two countries stood at $38.5 million at the end of 2016, 45 percent up from 2011, according to SIS. Search Keywords: Short link: During the 2016-17 theatre season, Prairie Theatre Exchange and Theatre Cercle Moliere embarked on an ambitious and groundbreaking partnership. The two local theatres each presented the same work in English at PTE, en francais at Cercle with the same cast and the same director. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. During the 2016-17 theatre season, Prairie Theatre Exchange and Theatre Cercle Moliere embarked on an ambitious and groundbreaking partnership. The two local theatres each presented the same work in English at PTE, en francais at Cercle with the same cast and the same director. Theatre preview Click to Expand What To Do With Albert? Prairie Theatre Exchange April 11-28 Tickets: pte.mb.ca or 204-942-5483 Winnipeg playwright Ginny Collins Churchill-set murder-mystery The Flats was the guinea pig for the joint venture. It had its world premiere at PTE in January 2017, and then its French debut at Cercle in March, to critical and popular acclaim. This year, Collins, 35, finds herself on the opposite side of the process. The former French immersion student translated Quebec playwright Danielle Seguin-Tetraults brand-new comedy Que faire dAlbert? which premiered at Cercle last month into English for the PTE production, What To Do With Albert?, which opens Thursday, April 11 at 8 p.m. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Director Laura Lussier helmed both French and English versions of Danielle Seguin-Tetraults comedy. "I approached it thinking Im going to write a play, rather than Im going to write a translation," she says of the process. "Because Ive worked in both languages through school and through work, I know that its just so different that when youre reimagining dialogue, you essentially have to start again. You take the intention of the text, but then you write your own words." What To Do With Albert? is the story of an elderly man who has been recently widowed. His daughter thinks it might be time for him to move into a seniors residence, but Albert has other ideas. He embarks on a journey with his late wifes ashes to visit meaningful places from their past; he doesnt realize his adventure is causing great panic, as no one knows where hes gone. Though the play, which is loosely based on Seguin-Tetraults own experiences, touches on serious ideas about aging and family, its very much a comedy something Collins says adds a layer of difficulty to translating. Its not just jargon and slang that need to be captured, but a particular sense of humour. "The French language has a lot of plays on words that are very clever in that language, but in English, they might be groaners like Dad jokes, or puns," explains the playwright, who is the communications director for Manitoba Film & Music. "When youre translating that and you want to show that the character is clever, that theyre making a clever turn of phrase, you have to have them make a joke, but not use wordplay. "It starts with knowing the character... so if the character is sarcastic and a little bit mean, then you can make a joke based on that." Though Seguin-Tetrault formerly lived in Winnipeg, her work is strongly Quebecois; Collins localized the language to be more recognizably Franco-Manitoban. "The slang in Manitoba is quite different from Quebec," she says. "The director was really helpful with adding the Manitoba slang we use a lot more franglais, a lot more English words dropped in." Playwright Ginny Collins translated Que faire dAlbert? into English for PTE. (Supplied photo) The director is Laura Lussier, 35, a graduate of University of Winnipegs theatre program (she and Collins attended the U of W together). "My first words were in French but I quickly started speaking frenglish or franglais," says the exuberant theatre artist, the daughter of a francophone mother and an anglophone father who now speaks both languages without an accent. She started out as an English-language actor but caught the directing bug in 2008. Since then she has worked on largely French-language productions, many at Cercle Moliere, as well as founding Theatre ptits bouts dchoux, which presents interdisciplinary works for kids between one to five. Directing two versions of the same work both productions were rehearsed simultaneously was an enormous challenge, especially considering she accepted the job before Seguin-Tetrault had finished writing the play. "Danielle and I have worked together before I directed her first play, Et que ca saute!, in 2016 so weve developed a relationship," she says. "We spent a ton of time in the first part of rehearsal, especially because were working with people for whom French is a second language, to, as we say in French, mettre en bouche or put it in your mouth. Alicia Johnston (left), Joanne Roberts and Jane Testar in What to do with Albert? (Leif Norman photo) "Whats lovely about this play and the casting is that Im very pleased to have a big variety of accents," she adds, pointing out the cast Jacqueline Hogart-Glen, Alicia Johnston, Joanne Roberts, Jane Testar, Alphonse Tetrault and Andre Vrignon-Tessier is a mix of francophone actors and anglophone actors with a French-immersion background. Ironically, Alberts humorous side again added a layer of difficulty to the work. Just as French jokes are lost in translation, French comedic acting, which tends to be broader and more exaggerated, doesnt always work for English audiences. "Just relearning the whole thing in a different language is a roller-coaster," Lussier says. "But the spirit of the language is different, and so the spirit of the playing it is different. I think a lot of anglophones say francophones have a lot of joie de vivre and that translates into the way that we create art and theatre. Audiences are more used to, especially with comedies, a slightly heightened way of playing, and they are there with us. "With the English (version), I want to keep that joie de vivre and that joy, but there are tweaks to be made. Im really excited to see what lands and what doesnt." Alicia Johnston (left) and Alphonse Tetrault. (Leif Norman photo) jill.wilson@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @dedaumier If you value coverage of Manitobas arts scene, help us do more. Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project. CANBERRA, Australia - Australia's prime minister on Thursday called a May 18 election that will be fought on issues including climate change, asylum seekers and economic management. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, second left, shakes hands with Governor General Peter Cosgrove as he leaves Government House in Canberra, Thursday, April 11, 2019, after a meeting to dissolve parliament and head for a Federal Election. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP) CANBERRA, Australia - Australia's prime minister on Thursday called a May 18 election that will be fought on issues including climate change, asylum seekers and economic management. "We live in the best country in the world," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters after advising the governor-general to authorize the election. In this July 2, 2016, file photo, Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten answers questions during a breakfast show television interview on election day in Sydney, Australia. Shorten, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, is the favorite to become Australian prime minister. ShortenAos party, the center-left Labor Party, has led the conservative coalition in most opinion polls in the last three years. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File) "But to secure your future, the road ahead depends on a strong economy. And that's why there is so much at stake at this election," he added. Morrison's conservative coalition is seeking a third three-year term. But Morrison is the third prime minister to lead a divided government in that time and only took the helm in late August. Opinion polls suggest his reign will become one of the shortest in the 118-year history of Australian prime ministers on election day. The polls suggest centre-left opposition leader Bill Shorten will become the eighth prime minister since the country plunged into an extraordinary period of political instability in 2007. The election pits Shorten, a former labour union leader who has presented himself as the alternative prime minister for the past six years, and Morrison, a leader who the Australian public is still getting to know. Shorten said in his first news conference since the election was called that his government will take "real action on climate change" and reduce inequality in Australian society if his Labor Party wins power. "Australians face a real and vital choice at this election. Do you want Labor's energy, versus the government's tiredness? Labor's focus on the future, versus being stuck in the past?" Shorten said. In this June 19, 2016, file photo, Australia's opposition Labor Party leader Bill Shorten speaks in Sydney. Shorten, an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, is the favorite to become Australian prime minister. ShortenAos party, the center-left Labor Party, has led the conservative coalition in most opinion polls in the last three years. (Mick Tsikas/Pool Photo via AP, File) Morrison is seen as the architect of Australia's tough refugee policy that has all but stopped the people-smuggling traffic of boats from Southeast Asian ports since 2014. The policy has been condemned by human rights groups as an abrogation of Australia's responsibilities as a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention. Morrison's first job in Prime Minister Tony Abbott's newly elected coalition government in 2013 was as minister for immigration and border protection. He oversaw the secretive military-run Operation Sovereign Borders. Asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa and Asia would typically disable or sink their boats when intercepted by patrol ships in waters north of Australia so that the Australian crews would have to rescue them rather than turn the boats away. Under the new regime, the asylum seekers were placed in motorized life boats that were towed back to Indonesia. The life boats had just enough fuel to reach the Indonesian coast. The Indonesian government complained the policy was an affront to Indonesian sovereignty. The government has also maintained a policy adopted in the final months of a Labor government in 2013 of sending boat arrivals to camps on the Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Those who attempt to reach Australia by boat are told they will never be allowed to settle there. Morrison remains proud of virtually stopping people-smuggler boat traffic. He has a trophy shaped like a people-smuggler's boat in his office inscribed with "I Stopped These." Labor has promised to maintain the policy of banishing boat arrivals to the islands. But Labor says it would give priority to finding permanent homes for the asylum seekers who have languished in island camps for years. The conservative coalition argues that the boats would start coming again because a Labor government would soften the regime. The government introduced temporary protection visas for boat arrivals so that refugees face potential deportation every three years if the circumstances that they fled in their homelands improve. Labor would give refugees permanent visas so that they have the certainty to plan their lives. Climate change policy is a political battlefield in a country that is the world's largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas and has been one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters on a per capita basis because of its heavily reliance on coal-fired power generation. Disagreement over energy policy has been a factor in the last six changes of prime minister. Labour Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced a carbon tax in 2012. Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott scrapped it two years later. The coalition is torn between lawmakers who want polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions and those who reject any measures that would increase household power bills. The government aims to reduce Australian greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030. Labour has promised a more ambitious target of a 45% reduction in the same time frame. Action on climate change was a major priority for votes when conservative Prime Minister John Howard's reign ended after more than 11 years at an election in 2007. Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd immediately signed up to the U.N.'s 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions. Australia and the United States had been the only industrialized countries to hold out. Climate change dropped down the list of Australian priorities after the global financial crisis hit. But after Australians sweltered through a record hot summer and grappled with devastating drought, global warming has become a high-priority issue for voters again. The government warns that Labor's emissions reduction plan would wreck the economy. The coalition also argues that Labor would further damage the economy with its policy of reducing tax breaks for landlords as real estate prices fall in Australia's largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne. Morrison boasts that the conservative administration Prime Minister Howard led delivered 10 annual surplus budgets and paid off all federal government debt before the government changed at the 2007 election. Rudd had planned a budget surplus in his government's first fiscal year, but the global financial crisis struck. Many economists congratulate Rudd for keeping the Australian economy out of recession through stimulus spending. The coalition has accused Labor of spending too much and sinking Australia too deep in debt, Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. But debt has continued to mount since the conservatives regained the reins in 2013. But opinion polls suggest voters consider the conservatives to be better economic managers. The government brought forward its annual budget blueprint by a month to April 2 and revealed a plan to balance Australia's books in the next fiscal year for the first time in 12 years. Labour also promised to deliver a surplus budget in the year starting July 1, but it has yet to detail how it will achieve this goal. Labour has also promised to spend an additional AU$2.3 billion ($1.6 billion) over four years on covering treatment costs of cancer patients. It's an attractive offer with half Australia's population expected to be diagnosed with some form of the disease in their lifetimes. The conservatives have largely taken credit for Australia's remarkable run of 28 years of economic growth since its last recession under Labor's rule. Morrison hopes that voters will look to him to deliver a sequel to the Howard years when a mining boom delivered ever-increasing budget surpluses. OTTAWA - Britain's prolonged divorce proceeding from the European Union will give it more time to forge a proper free-trade deal with Canada, says the country's envoy to Ottawa. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Protester flags fly opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, Thursday, April 11, 2019. European Union leaders on Thursday offered Britain an extension to Brexit that would allow the country to delay its EU departure date until Oct. 31. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) OTTAWA - Britain's prolonged divorce proceeding from the European Union will give it more time to forge a proper free-trade deal with Canada, says the country's envoy to Ottawa. The United Kingdom is not legally allowed to engage in free-trade negotiations until it has departed the EU, but High Commissioner Susan le Jeune d'Allegeershecque said her country's top trade negotiator has been meeting regularly with Canadian representatives to sketch out the broad strokes of a bilateral deal. Britain remains part of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada as long as it is a member of the 28-country bloc. Canadian and British negotiators aim to replicate CETA as much as possible in a two-country pact, le Jeune d'Allegeershecque told The Canadian Press from London on Thursday. She spoke hours after a frustrated EU, in an emergency meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, granted Britain a Brexit reprieve until the end of October. The Halloween extension avoids a messy no-deal departure from the EU that was to occur Friday, which could have triggered a British recession with immediate tariffs on trade with the continent. "The plan is still to have a transitioned form of the CETA agreement, which would reflect all the benefits that that (deal) has," le Jeune d'Allegeershecque said. "We obviously now have a little bit more time." That includes technical discussions about particular chapters and topics, she added. "The legal position is we're not allowed to negotiate," said le Jeune d'Allegeershecque. "Technical talks about what an agreement might look like are possible and those have been going on. There's been intense co-operation and contacts between our two trade-policy and trade-negotiating teams." That work follows May's September 2017 visit to Ottawa during which she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged a "seamless" transition out of CETA and into a new trading relationship after Brexit. The May government's attempts to follow through on its pledge to break from the EU have been fraught with frustration, delays and no end of drama. The extension was reached in Thursday's early morning hours in Brussels, between May and EU leaders. She was back in London later Thursday and told Parliament she wanted to strike a compromise to exit as soon as possible. That won't be easy because the House of Commons has rejected her Brexit plan three times. In multiple votes meant to gauge what the British Parliament might support, majorities have rejected every scenario they've been offered, from simply scrapping the plan to leave the EU to holding a new national vote on the idea to leaving in a "hard Brexit" with no agreed terms. May said if her own divided Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party can't find a way forward soon, Britain will have to take part in the European Parliament election late next month. May told reporters before leaving Brussels that she was hopeful the departure could take place before June 30 and if possible, before the European election. "It's quite an ambitious objective on her part because she will have seen how difficult it has been to get anything through Parliament recently," said le Jeune d'Allegeershecque. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said her department has been "very assiduous in working out a transition on all of our treaties, including CETA" for a post-Brexit Britain. "However, I think it would be fair to say we are negotiating with a target which is both moving and quite understandably focused on serious challenges at home," Freeland told the Senate foreign-affairs committee this week. Canada views the situation as it's watching two married people it cares about "going through some difficulties," Freeland said. "They seem not quite yet to have decided where they're going to end up as they work through those difficulties, but what we say to both the EU and to Britain and this is very warmly received is we are going to remain the best of friends with both of them, no matter what the outcome." The prolonged British departure is weighing heavily on Britain's European allies. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Kareen Rispal, the French ambassador to Canada, said that as a long-time EU booster she hopes that Britain's inability to say goodbye might actually lead to its staying in the bloc. "Brexit is not a win-win for anyone," she said in an interview. "It's not one for the U.K. It's not one for Europe. It's not one for France. France will suffer because we do lots of trade with the U.K." France will find a way to carry on with Britain, regardless of the outcome, she said, but added: "At one point we need to end this uncertainty because it's not good for the economy, for companies." U.S. President Donald Trump used Twitter Thursday to complain that it was "too bad that the European Union is being so tough." He said the EU is "likewise a brutal trading partner with the United States," something he said he would change. Le Jeune d'Allegeershecque had no comment on Trump's tweet, but said the EU has not been tough on her country. "I think they have legitimate concerns about such things as the European parliamentary elections. I think what came out was a very decent compromise, which gives us both what we wanted," she said. "The fact that we and the EU are content to what's been agreed is the most important thing." Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Suddenly, everyones interested in Manitoba sand. The mystery company that two years ago staked a massive area spanning 1,200 square kilometres around Steinbach and extending up to Anola has revealed itself and its intentions. PROVINCE OF MANITOBA Mineral claims made near Steinbach in 2017. The numbered company out of Alberta that filed 452 claims in the area is privately owned HD Minerals out of Calgary, and its exploring a sand deposit. Its the second company to come forward this year with intentions to mine sand in the province. Earlier this year, Canadian Premium Sand unveiled plans to build a $110-million sand-extraction and cleaning plant near Hollow Water First Nation, on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. Its project to supply sand for fracking oil is not yet approved and requires extensive road improvements to haul sand out of the quarry. The HD Mineral play is nowhere near as developed, but at least it wouldnt have a problem with transportation. The company would ship sand to market via railway with both CN Rail and CP Rail lines running through its properties, a company representative said. The big reveal this week was not to announce a major find to the marketplace, but is rather a commitment to let staked communities know what the company is up to, said Trevor Martens of Evolve Surface Strategies, a land-acquisition company working for HD Minerals. Open houses were held in La Broquerie on Tuesday and Anola on Wednesday. A third meeting is slated for today in Richer at the Young at Heart Hall from 4 to 8 p.m. HD Minerals land claims encompass at least six rural municipalities: Ste. Anne, Hanover, La Broquerie, Springfield, Reynolds and Tache. The HD Minerals play is unusual in that the company didnt know what it was drilling for, Martens said. It liked the unexplored geology and the infrastructure, and so cast a wide net. That infrastructure includes the proximity to railways, Winnipeg and a large workforce. "Ultimately, we tested for everything," Martens said. "We tested for gold, and diamonds, you name it." They also tested for lithium, which many people in the mining sector suspected was its target. What they found wasnt as sexy, but still of value: a high-quality sand that might be used in oil and gas recovery (fracking) but also in making glass, ceramics, solar panels, silica metals and other products, Martens said. "We havent picked a market yet because we dont know yet what were going to get," Martens said. The other unusual aspect of the mineral play is that the sand isnt near surface, as is the case in sand and gravel quarries. The sand HD Minerals is finding is 200 feet below ground level (the Hollow Water sand is two feet below the surface) and cannot be mined by open quarry, only by underground mine. Martens wasnt aware of any underground sand mines anywhere in the world. "This has never been done before, and were working with environmental people and hydrogeologists and drilling engineers to see if we can even produce it," he said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The sand is also in an aquifer used by many people in the area for private wells. "The biggest thing were stressing right now is not the economics of it, but the environmental and water aspect," he said. "We want to be as environmentally responsible as we can be and were working with specialists from the area and Winnipeg before we make any applications for this." The company has drilled 28 bore holes to date and found enough sand deposit to continue exploration. It has so far paid out $45,000 to landowners in the area for surface-access rights. "Were very early still. Were still testing," Martens said. Since the land was first staked, HD Minerals has become a subsidiary of CanWhite Sands Corp. HD Minerals president Feisal Somji was not available to explain what attracted the company about the areas geology, or the geology behind the location of the sand. bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca DALLAS - Another senior employee at a chemical company is facing criminal charges connected to a 2017 explosion at a Houston-area plant following Hurricane Harvey. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this Sept., 2017 file photo, smoke rises from a chemical plant in Crosby, near Houston, Texas. The Harris County District Attorney's office announced Wednesday, April 10, 2019 that Arkema's vice president of logistics, Michael Keough, has been indicted for felony assault. Keough, is another senior employee of the chemical company now facing criminal charges connected to a 2017 explosion at Houston-area plant following Hurricane Harvey. (KTRK via AP, File) DALLAS - Another senior employee at a chemical company is facing criminal charges connected to a 2017 explosion at a Houston-area plant following Hurricane Harvey. Michael Keough, vice-president of logistics for Arkema Inc.'s North American subsidiary, was indicted for felony assault over his actions ahead of a chemical fire and explosion at the company's Crosby facility, the Harris County District Attorney's office announced Wednesday. The company was also charged. Keough falsely told officials that Arkema was monitoring potentially explosive chemical tanks in real time when the company had insufficient data to give early warning, according to District Attorney Kim Ogg. These "misrepresentations" led two sheriff's deputies to drive directly into a toxic cloud, which then spread to exposing others, she said. An attorney for Keough, Dan Cogdell, called the indictment "absurd" and "beyond rational thought." "There has, quite literally, never been a prosecution like this one for one singular reason what Mike did wasn't a crime" Cogdell said in a statement. The charges against Keough were announced weeks after fires at two other Houston-area chemical plants , and on the day President Donald Trump visited Crosby to sign executive orders designed to speed up oil and gas pipeline projects Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Ogg acknowledged during a press conference that criminal charges are rarely brought against company employees over environmental violations, but said civil regulations have proven insufficient to protect the public. "Too often corporations are simply allowed to pay fines and that doesn't change corporate behaviour," she said. Keough is the third Arkema employee to be indicted since the hurricane knocked out power at the company's Crosby facility. Without electricity, some of the chemicals at the plant caught fire and partially exploded, sending plumes of smoke skyward. Richard Rowe, the France-based company's chief executive, and plant manager Leslie Comardelle were charged with releasing toxic chemicals last year. They are set to be tried in May. In 2018, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board released a report saying that Arkema failed to consider how a Harvey-level flood could affect its electrical power system. A lawyer for the company, Rusty Hardin, said Wednesday that prosecutors are trying to hold Arkema responsible for an "Act of God" and called the case "political." MENLO PARK, Calif. - Facebook said Wednesday it is rolling out a wide range of updates aimed at combatting the spread of false and harmful information on the social media site stepping up the company's fight against misinformation and hate speech as it faces growing outside pressure. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2019, file photo, media and guests tour Facebook offices in Cambridge, Mass., building. Facebook says it is rolling out a wide range of updates in order to combat the spread of false and harmful information on the social media site. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File) MENLO PARK, Calif. - Facebook said Wednesday it is rolling out a wide range of updates aimed at combatting the spread of false and harmful information on the social media site stepping up the company's fight against misinformation and hate speech as it faces growing outside pressure. The updates will limit the visibility of links found to be significantly more prominent on Facebook than across the web as a whole, suggesting they may be clickbait or misleading. The company is also expanding its fact-checking program with outside expert sources, including The Associated Press, to vet videos and other material posted on Facebook. Facebook groups the online communities that many point to as lightning rods for the spread of fake information will also be more closely monitored. If they are found to be spreading misinformation, their visibility in users' news feeds will be limited. Lawmakers and human rights groups have been critical of the company for the spread of extremism and misinformation on its flagship site and on Instagram. During a hearing Tuesday on the spread of white nationalism, congress members questioned a company representative about how Facebook prevents violent material from being uploaded and shared on the site. In a separate Senate subcommittee hearing Wednesday, the company was asked about allegations that social media companies are biased against conservatives. The dual hearings illustrate the tricky line that Facebook, and other social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube, are walking as they work to weed out problematic and harmful materials while also avoiding what could be construed as censorship. CEO Mark Zuckerberg's latest vision for Facebook, with an emphasis on private, encrypted messaging , is sure to pose a challenge for the company when it comes to removing problematic material. Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice-president of integrity, acknowledged the challenge in a meeting with reporters at Facebook's Menlo Park, California, headquarters Wednesday. He said striking a balance between protecting people's privacy and public safety is "something societies have been grappling for centuries." Rosen said the company is focused on making sure it does the best job possible "as Facebook evolves toward private communications." But he offered no specifics. "This is something we are going to be working on, working with experts outside the company," he said, adding that the aim is "to make sure we make really informed decisions as we go into this process." Facebook already has teams in place to monitor the site for material that breaks the company's policies against information that is overtly sexual, incites violence or is hate speech. Karen Courington, who works on product-support operations at Facebook, said half of the 30,000 workers in the company's "safety and security" teams are focused on content review. She said those content moderators are a mix of Facebook employees and contractors, but she declined to give a percentage breakdown. Facebook has received criticism for the environment the content reviewers work in. They are exposed to posts, photos and videos that represent the worst of humanity and have to decide what to take down and what to leave up in minutes, if not seconds. Courington said these workers receive 80 hours of training before they start their jobs and "additional support," including psychological resources. She also said they are paid above the "industry standard" for these jobs but did not give numbers. It's also not clear if the workers have options to move into other jobs if the content-review work proves psychologically difficult or damaging. Even with moderators for material that clearly goes against Facebook's policies, the company is still left with the job of dealing with information that falls into a more grey area that is not breaking the rules but would be considered offensive by most or is false. Facebook and other social media companies have long tried to avoid seeming like content editors and "arbiters of truth," so they often err on the side of leaving material up, if less visible, if it is in the grey areas. But if Facebook knows information is wrong, why not remove it? That's a question posed by Paul Barrett, deputy director at the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. "Making a distinction between demoting (material) and removing it seems to us to be a curious hesitation," he said. He acknowledged, however, that even if Facebook did remove information more aggressively, the site would never be perfect. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "There's a tension here," said Tessa Lyons, Facebook's head of News Feed. "We work hard to find the right balance between encouraging free expression and promoting a safe and authentic community, and we believe that down-ranking inauthentic content strikes that balance." The company said Wednesday it would share more of its misinformation issues with experts and seek their advice. Facebook faces a tough challenge, said Filippo Menczer, a professor of informatics and computer science at Indiana University. He said he's glad to see the company consult journalists, researchers and other experts on fact-checking. Menczer has spoken with the company on the issue of misinformation a couple times recently. "The fact that they are saying they want to engage the broader research community, to me is a step in the right direction," he said. ___ Lerman reported from San Francisco. HALIFAX - Genetically modified salmon raised in Prince Edward Island are poised for the leap to grocery shelves, a Canadian first that has left traditional producers concerned about setting their farmed fish apart. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. This handout photo provided by AquaBounty Technologies shows two same-aged salmon, a genetically modified salmon, rear, and a non-genetically modified salmon, foreground. As trangenic salmon raised in Prince Edward Island are poised for the leap to Canadian grocery shelves, traditional producers are pondering how to set their farmed fish apart. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-AquaBounty Technologies MANDATORY CREDIT HALIFAX - Genetically modified salmon raised in Prince Edward Island are poised for the leap to grocery shelves, a Canadian first that has left traditional producers concerned about setting their farmed fish apart. Environment Canada recently gave notice it has approved U.S.-based AquaBounty to grow the salmon at its site about 74 kilometres east of Charlottetown. AquaBounty said in a release it would begin stocking its Rollo Bay facility "as soon as possible," with the first harvest of AquAdvantage salmon estimated late next year. Sylvain Charlebois, director of the agrifood analytics unit at Dalhousie University, said it's likely AquaBounty "production will be ramped up in Canada." "It's a huge advantage for AquaBounty to be allowed to produce this salmon in Canada," he said in an interview. AquaBounty, based in Maynard, Mass., has said its salmon will contain genetic material from chinook salmon that help it reach adult size faster, creating a less expensive product. Health Canada said it doesn't see any need for a mandatory label to allow consumers to spot the genetically modified fish, but existing producers said they may call for that to change. "We are reviewing it," said Tim Kennedy, executive director of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance. "Will there be a disruption in the ... entire salmon market? We hope not. But I will say if that's a possibility, then the response will be: somebody has to label." The Environment Canada certification has been most strongly opposed to date by environmental groups, who continue to argue there's a risk to wild Atlantic salmon if there's an escape. However, the certifications in Canada and the U.S. could draw the traditional aquaculture industry and its lobbyists more closely into the debate, depending on how consumers react to the news of AquaBounty's products entering the market sometime next year. The Canadian aquaculture alliance says its members don't farm or sell GM farmed salmon and aren't researching the practice. Kennedy said a push for labelling could come next. "We are reviewing it. We recognize the United States is moving forward with mandatory labelling, as is the European Union," he said. "Does it make sense from a trade perspective to align more closely with our major trading partners?" He said the industry could consider setting up a non-GM label, similar to the labelling of organic foods. The federal Health Department has repeatedly said it doesn't favour mandatory labelling for the genetically modified fish. In a February letter to the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network - an active opponent of GM salmon - the department said it prefers "industry-led initiatives such as voluntary standards," and "the government of Canada intends to maintain its current approach." Kennedy said this leaves the question of who should pay for a massive labelling redo. "Who bears the burden of that transparency? I don't think it should be our producers because we're not the ones putting the new product into the market," he said. Meanwhile, it remains unclear how significant the level of production in P.E.I. will be in the Canadian market. The company declined a request for an interview with its CEO about its plans going forward for production in Prince Edward Island, providing references to news releases. Over the past two years - as it awaited its Environment Canada licence - the company had shipped eggs to Panama for growing, before the salmon were imported back to Canada and other destinations. Charlebois says the federal decision means the firm can ship more directly to markets, particularly processors that might use the GM salmon in products ranging from sushi to pies to pates. Still, the arrival of a form of labelling in the U.S. could lead to increased pressure to create some form of labelling in Canada, he adds. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to the AquaBounty production in Indiana, subject to a new regulation that will require it to disclose when a food is genetically modified. That has come amidst a pending lawsuit by a coalition of consumer, environmental and fishing groups that still hopes to block the sale through the courts. Try our Dish The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Dish arrives in your inbox every other Friday. See sample. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Opponents have also criticized the upcoming U.S. labelling system, which they say uses the term "bioengineered," a less familiar phrase than "genetically modified." Also, under the rules coming in 2020, companies will be able to provide disclosure of the GM salmon through codes that people would have to scan on their smart phones. Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, says her group wants Canada to introduce a more transparent labelling system that consumers can easily see on any package. "The lack of genetically modified food labelling is just the most obvious transparency issue undermining public trust," she told parliamentarians in a hearing last week. "Canadians are also asking for more transparent regulation of genetically modified organisms and opportunities for public engagement." - Follow (at)mtuttoncporg on Twitter. BRUSSELS - The latest on Britain's exit from the European Union (all times local): Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. European Council President Donald Tusk, left, looks on as British Prime Minister Theresa May, center left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center right, view a tablet during a meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, April 10, 2019. European Union leaders met Wednesday in Brussels for an emergency summit to discuss a new Brexit extension. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP) BRUSSELS - The latest on Britain's exit from the European Union (all times local): 3 a.m. British Prime Minister Theresa May says the European Union has granted her "key request" to add an early exit clause to its agreement to a six-month Brexit extension. The U.K. and the EU agreed early Thursday to delay Brexit until Oct. 31, but May says she wants to leave "as soon as possible." She says that if U.K. lawmakers back her Brexit deal, her country can still leave before June 30 the Brexit deadline that she had requested from the bloc. May says Britain faces "stark" choices "and the timetable is clear." ___ 2:55 a.m. French President Emmanuel Macron says a last-ditch six-month extension for Brexit is the "best possible compromise" to protect the rest of the European Union. Macron was the main holdout among EU leaders at an emergency summit in Brussels against a long extension of Britain's already-delayed departure from the EU. But he agreed early Thursday with other EU leaders to extend Brexit until Oct. 31. He told reporters later that he did this "to preserve the unity" of the remaining 27 member states and to give Britain "more time to deliver a deal" that would prevent chaos in trade and travel when it leaves the EU. Macron said it's now "up to Britons to be clear with themselves and their people" about whether they want to participate in the European Parliament elections next month even though they would have to abandon the legislature a few months later. ___ 2:45 a.m. EU Council chief Donald Tuskis pleading with the United Kingdom to use the special six-month Brexit extension it has been granted to the fullest of its ability. After the agreement was announced early Thursday, Tusk said, "Let me finish with the message to our British friends: Please do not waste this time." And even though the decision also includes a June review of progress, Tusk says the new date will not amount to a cliff-edge cutoff of UK membership as March 29 had done for so long. Tusk says that "our intention is to finalize the whole process in October." ___ 2:05 a.m. European Union leaders and Britain have agreed to allow Britain to extend Brexit until Oct. 31. EU Council president Donald Tusk says "this means additional six months for the UK to find the best possible solution." Tusk said early Thursday that it is a flexible extension, referring to his earlier offer that Britain could leave before if it accepted the withdrawal deal with the EU. May came to the summit in Brussels requesting a delay until June 30 but acknowledged she would be willing to extend the date. The British Parliament has repeatedly rejected a withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU, leading to a deadlock over Britain's long-awaited departure. ___ 12:40 a.m. Two European officials say EU leaders are offering to allow Britain to extend Brexit until Oct. 31 and are awaiting the U.K.'s response. The officials said that the European leaders agreed at an emergency Brexit summit early Thursday in Brussels that part of the offer is that the EU would assess the situation June. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations. British Prime Minister Theresa May was expected to meet with EU Council President Donald Tusk to discuss the offer. May had come to the summit requesting a delay until June 30 but had acknowledged she would be willing to extend that date. The British Parliament has repeatedly rejected a withdrawal deal negotiated with the EU, leading to today's deadlock over Britain's long-awaited departure. -Raf Casert ___ 10:35 p.m. France is still playing hardball in the European Union's negotiations over whether to grant British Prime Minister Theresa May another Brexit extension. An official in French President Emmanuel Macron's office said May hadn't given "sufficient guarantees" at an emergency Brexit summit "to justify a long extension." May has asked the leaders of the EU's 27 remaining nations to delay Britain's departure until June 30. Some of those at Wednesday's summit in Brussels favour an even longer extension. The French official said all options remain on the table, including one May's government and the EU worked to avoid: the U.K. falling out of the bloc Friday without a divorce deal in place. Huge trade and travel headaches are expected from a no-deal Brexit. The official, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to presidential policy, said: "The no-deal situation is a real option." The official says other EU leaders expressed concerns with a long extension, but acknowledged Macron is playing "bad cop" to pressure the British government into clarifying what it wants. -By Angela Charlton. ___ 8:05 p.m. Forget about the date the U.K. will leave possibly leave the European Union. The real question gripping the EU summit: What was on Angela Merkel's tablet? Just as the meeting was about to kick off, the German chancellor walked over to her U.K. counterpart Theresa May, her tablet at the ready. They both intently looked at the screen before sharing a hearty laugh. Then Merkel walked over to summit chair Donald Tusk, who joined in the merriment. Doors soon closed on the cameramen and photographers at the Europa building, with apparently no one getting a peek at what was on her tablet. Jokes soon followed. Were they comparing prices of their suits, which looked identical Europe-blue? One EU official said Merkel must have claimed she got it at half the price. News conferences were still hours away, leaving the world waiting with bated breath. ___ 7:35 p.m. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he wants to know how British leader Theresa May plans to get a Brexit agreement through Parliament and assurances the U.K. will remain a loyal European Union member until it leaves the bloc. Rutte said after arriving for an emergency summit where the heads of remaining member countries are discussing May's latest request to postpone Britain's departure that Brexit has tested his patience "for some time now." The conservative leader of the Netherlands is pro-European and has close ties to Britain. He says the debate in Brussels on Wednesday is focusing on how long Brexit should be postponed, what conditions the EU should attach if it agrees to a delay, and "how we can get guarantees that in the meantime, the United Kingdom will stay as a loyal partner." ___ 6:05 p.m. Some European leaders say they are inclined to grant British Prime Minister Theresa May's request to push back the U.K.'s deadline for leaving the European Union. Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas says the EU "must do all that we can" to prevent the U.K. being out of the EU without a withdrawal deal or transition period, which could happen Friday if Brexit is not postponed. Ratas says "of course" Estonia will support an extension. Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins says if Britain is asking for more time, "I think we should consider giving them time." May has asked to push Brexit back until June 30, but many in the EU favour a delay of up to a year to give British politicians more time to break the country's political impasse on Brexit. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said that "for me, the proposal to last until the end of March next year is fine." But French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that "nothing is decided." ___ 5:55 p.m. French President Emmanuel Macron says "nothing is yet decided" on whether and how long of a Brexit delay to offer Britain. Macron is seen as the European leader most strongly opposed to British Prime Minister Theresa May's request for another delay to the U.K.'s exit from the European Union. While others expressed their willingness to grant an extension until June 30 or even next year, Macron said Wednesday at a Brexit summit in Brussels that "nothing is decided." Upon arriving at the summit, Macron insisted on "clarity" from May about what Britain wants, and said "nothing should compromise the European project." ___ 4:50 p.m. British Prime Minister Theresa May has signalled she is ready to accept a long delay to Brexit if other European Union leaders insist, as long as the U.K. has the option of leaving earlier if lawmakers ratify an EU divorce deal. Arriving at an emergency Brexit summit in Brussels on Wednesday, May said she "greatly regrets" the U.K. hasn't left the EU yet. Other European leaders at the summit are discussing her request to push back the departure date to June 30 to give Britain's feuding politicians more time to approve divorce terms. But the bloc favours a longer extension. May said: "What is important is that any extension enables us to leave at the point at which we ratify the withdrawal agreement." She says she's hopeful that could be by May 22. ___ 3:40 p.m. The Czech Republic's prime minister says he supports European Council President Donald Tusk's proposal to grant Britain a longer delay than it has requested for its departure from the European Union. British Prime Minister Theresa May travels to Brussels to attend an EU summit Wednesday seeking for another extension to Britain's departure, until June 30. Britain is currently scheduled to leave the EU on Friday. Tusk has suggested a delay of up to a year, with conditions attached to ensure Britain does not stymie EU decision-making while it remains a member. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis says that Tusk's plan would "calm down the situation" and also give Britain time enough to decide what it wants to do. Babis says: "It's a good proposal." EU countries have become increasingly exasperated with the political division and uncertainty in Britain. ___ 3:25 p.m. French government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye is warning that the risk of a no-deal Brexit still exists ahead of a European Union summit. Ndiaye said the issue has been brought up during the weekly Cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the Elysee palace, as President Emmanuel Macron was about to head to Brussels for the summit. "The no-deal option is obviously the one we would least want ... there's actually a risk and France is prepared", she said. Ndiaye said that France is open to granting an extension to the Brexit deadline but "this is not automatic." France wants a "clear and credible prospect" from Britain and commitments not to endanger the EU institutions, she said. She declined to provide details on what kind of extension France considers acceptable. Britain is currently scheduled to leave the EU on Friday, with or without a deal. ___ 3:10 p.m. Britain's pro-Brexit political parties are getting ready to do something they have long argued against running in European Union elections. Anti-EU figurehead Nigel Farage says his newly formed Brexit Party will run in the elections. He says the contest will bring "a rebirth of active Euroscepticism," driven by Britons' anger at the failure to leave the EU. Farage's former party, UKIP, also says it will run candidates in all parts of the U.K. Brexiteers have condemned Prime Minister Theresa May for seeking to postpone the U.K.'s departure because she has failed to get Parliament's approval for her EU withdrawal agreement. May is asking for a delay until June 30, though the EU could offer longer. That means Britain would have to participate in late-May elections for the European Parliament almost three years after the country voted to leave the bloc. ___ 2:05 p.m. Brexit? What Brexit? British lawmakers have for the most part avoided the hot-button topic of the day during the prime minister's weekly appearance before Parliament. Prime Minister Theresa May didn't face the usual level of harsh questioning during the Wednesday session just hours ahead of a vital European Union summit in Brussels. She was asked more questions about tax policy and police funding than about her request for a delay in Britain's April 12 departure from the EU. Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn did not bring up Brexit, and many lawmakers shied away from the usual bickering as May prepares to ask the EU for an extension. May did say her position on holding a second EU referendum has not changed, meaning she is still opposed. ___ 1:50 p.m. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she favours granting an extension of several months to the Brexit deadline. Merkel told German lawmakers Wednesday that she will meet before the European Union summit later in the day with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has taken a hard line over recent weeks on Brexit. Pressed on what kind of extension Germany backs, Merkel replied: "I favour, if there is a broad majority for this today, possibly making it a delay of several months but not delaying anything, so that once Britain has decided the withdrawal can happen immediately." Britain is currently scheduled to leave the EU on Friday, with or without a deal. Prime Minister Theresa May has asked for a delay until June 30, and visited both Germany and France Tuesday to make her case. ___ 1:30 p.m. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has set out three conditions for a likely delay to Britain's departure from the European Union. Merkel addressed German lawmakers on Wednesday, hours before EU leaders meet in Brussels to decide whether to grant Britain's request for a delay beyond the current Friday night deadline. Merkel said the EU has "expectations" of Britain. She said that the EU's institutions must be able to continue functioning "seamlessly" and that Britain must conduct elections to the European Parliament in late May. She added that there also needs to be "a readiness to take part constructively in decisions." ___ 1:20 p.m. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the European Union may well decide on a longer Brexit delay than the one sought by the British government, but it would be flexible enough to allow Brexit "very quickly" once London approves the withdrawal agreement. EU leaders are meeting in Brussels later Wednesday to mull Prime Minister Theresa May's request for Brexit to be delayed until June 30. If no extension is granted, Britain risks crashing out without a deal on Friday. Merkel told German lawmakers that a disorderly Brexit "is not in our interest." She said of Wednesday's outcome that "it may well be a longer extension than the one the British prime minister asked for, but we will shape this extension in such a way that whenever Britain has approved the withdrawal agreement, Britain can then complete its orderly withdrawal very shortly after" with a two-year transition period. She didn't specify exactly how long the extension might be. ___ 12:45 p.m. The European Union's legislature has warned British Prime Minister Theresa May to come to the Brexit summit with clear indications on how she hopes to turn the cross-party talks with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn into a success. The European Parliament said in a statement Wednesday that May "cannot come empty-handed." And the legislators told the EU leaders that they have to make sure that Britain will not become obstructionist if a long extension to their departure is granted. They said the summit "would be advised to provide the U.K. with an extension which should be appropriately framed to respect the principle of sincere co-operation." The European Parliament will need to approve any deal May reaches with the EU to make it binding. ___ 11:35 a.m. Groups representing manufacturers in the U.K. and across the continent have appealed to European leaders to work with Britain to avoid a divorce from the bloc without a deal. Make UK and sister organization Ceemet issued a joint letter to heads of state and chief negotiator Michel Barnier warning of economic shock in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The groups say that while they recognize efforts have been made to address the chaos that a no-deal scenario would cause, "it must be clear that neither the EU nor the UK are ready, and as a consequence European industry is also not adequately prepared, for this cliff edge scenario." Prime Minister Theresa May travels to Brussels Wednesday to ask for another extension to Britain's departure, until June 30. Britain is currently scheduled to leave the EU on Friday. ___ Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. 9:30 a.m. European Council President Donald Tusk is meeting leaders including British Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of an emergency summit to decide whether to grant the United Kingdom a further delay in its departure from the European Union. Donald Tusk meets the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia, The Netherlands and finally May shortly before Wednesday evening's summit begins. It's likely to be a rough day for the embattled British leader as she pleads for a second extension until June 30, to prevent Britain's departure now scheduled for Friday. Tusk has suggested an even longer delay of up to a year with conditions attached to ensure Britain does not stymie EU decision making if it remains a member. EU countries have become increasingly exasperated with the political division and uncertainty in Britain. LONDON - Granted a Brexit reprieve by the European Union, British Prime Minister Theresa May urged lawmakers Thursday to pause, reflect on the need for compromise and then fulfil their "national duty" to approve a divorce deal and take Britain out of the EU. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for a media conference at the conclusion of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, April 11, 2019. European Union leaders on Thursday offered Britain an extension to Brexit that would allow the country to delay its EU departure date until Oct. 31. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) LONDON - Granted a Brexit reprieve by the European Union, British Prime Minister Theresa May urged lawmakers Thursday to pause, reflect on the need for compromise and then fulfil their "national duty" to approve a divorce deal and take Britain out of the EU. But there is little sign the U.K.'s divided and exhausted lawmakers will heed the EU's plea not to waste the six months of extra time granted to Britain at an emergency summit in Brussels. Updating the House of Commons hours after the 27 other EU leaders agreed to postpone Brexit until Oct. 31, May said she knew the country was "intensely frustrated" by the impasse. "I never wanted to seek this extension," May said. She urged members of Parliament to take stock and "reflect" over a 10-day Easter break that starts Friday. "We need to resolve this, so that we can leave the European Union with a deal as soon as possible," she said. "This is our national duty as elected members of this House." Consensus, however, was in short supply Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, with whom May hopes to strike a compromise accord, called the Brexit delay "another milestone in the government's mishandling of the entire Brexit process." "The prime minister stuck rigidly to a flawed plan and now the clock has run down, leaving Britain in limbo," Corbyn said. And there was little solace for May on her own side of the House of Commons, as pro-Brexit lawmakers from her Conservative Party accused her of capitulating to Brussels. Brexiteer Conservative legislator Peter Bone said May had once vowed that she would not keep the U.K. in the EU past June 30. "So I expect her to say when she's leaving in the next few days and then the announcement of a Conservative leadership contest," he said. May went to Brussels Wednesday seeking to postpone Brexit after U.K. lawmakers rejected three times the divorce deal she had struck with the EU. The bloc had already granted Britain a delay once from the original March 29 deadline. Last month EU leaders gave Britain until Friday to approve a withdrawal plan, change course and seek a further delay to Brexit, or crash out of the EU with no deal to cushion the shock. Economists say a no-deal Brexit could lead to a deep recession as tariffs and other barriers are imposed on U.K. exports and customs checks delay goods at British ports. EU leaders, weary of the Brexit melodrama and divided over how long a delay to grant, met for more than six hours before agreeing to postpone Brexit until Halloween. Britain has the option of leaving before that if May succeeds in getting a withdrawal agreement ratified by Parliament. "Please, do not waste this time," European Council President Donald Tusk pleaded. Like many things Brexit-related, the extension was a messy compromise that left many unsatisfied. May came to the summit in Brussels seeking a delay to June 30. Some European leaders favoured a longer extension, but French President Emmanuel Macron was wary of anything more than a very short delay. May said she was satisfied with the flexible extension to Oct. 31, which keeps alive her hope the U.K. might leave by June 30. May told the House of Commons in an oft-repeated mantra that passing an EU withdrawal agreement quickly would allow Britain to avoid taking part in European parliamentary elections set for late May, an unpalatable prospect to many Conservatives. With many pro-Brexit Conservatives refusing to back May's deal on the grounds that it keeps the U.K. too closely bound to EU rules and regulations, the prime minister has tried to strike a deal with the left-of-centre Labour Party. Talks over the past week have not made a breakthrough, though they continued Thursday, and neither side seemed willing to abandon them yet. Labour, which seeks to retain close economic ties with the EU after Brexit, accuses the government of failing to offer concrete changes to its Brexit blueprint. The party also fears any promises made by May could be undone by her successor, who is likely to come from the staunchly pro-Brexit wing of the Conservative Party. "If the government is serious, the red lines must move and we must see a real compromise," Corbyn said. British businesses expressed relief at the Brexit delay. The Confederation of British Industry said it meant an "imminent economic crisis" had been averted for now. But the delay does not solve Britain's Brexit conundrum. If May can't win support from the Labour Party, she plans to ask Parliament to vote on several Brexit options. But lawmakers have done that before and ended up rejecting everything on offer. Pro-EU campaigners argue that politicians have failed and the next few months should be used to hold a new referendum on whether to leave the EU or remain. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in a tweet after the extension was granted that the British people should be allowed to "decide if they still want to leave." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit co-ordinator, tweeted that Britain's choices were "revoke, a public vote or a sensible cross-party deal." "Whatever the choice of the British people & Parliament, I hope the #Brexit nightmare ends well before Halloween," he wrote. ___ Associated Press writers Raf Casert, Mike Corder and Angela Charlton in Brussels, Danica Kirka in London and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit CROSBY, Texas - President Donald Trump's support for shifting more power to states on Wednesday faded next to his affinity for oil and gas production, as he aimed to make it harder for states to block pipelines and other energy projects due to environmental concerns. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. President Donald Trump hands out pens after signing an executive order on energy and infrastructure at the International Union of Operating Engineers International Training and Education Center, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in Crosby, Texas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) CROSBY, Texas - President Donald Trump's support for shifting more power to states on Wednesday faded next to his affinity for oil and gas production, as he aimed to make it harder for states to block pipelines and other energy projects due to environmental concerns. At the urging of business groups, Trump signed two executive orders designed to speed up oil and gas pipeline projects. The action came after officials in Washington state and New York used the permitting process to stop new energy projects in recent years, prompting complaints from Republican members of Congress and the fossil fuel industry. "Too often badly needed energy infrastructure is being held back by special interest groups, entrenched bureaucracies and radical activists," Trump complained before signing the orders. The Trump administration insisted it was not trying to take power away from the states but, rather, trying to make sure that state actions follow the intent of the Clean Water Act. Under a section of the law, companies must get certification from the state before moving ahead with an energy project. Washington state blocked the building of a coal terminal in 2017, saying there were too many major harmful effects including air pollution, rail safety and vehicle traffic. New York regulators stopped a natural gas pipeline, saying it failed to meet standards to protect streams, wetlands and other water resources. Less than a week ago, nearly a dozen business groups told Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler that the environmental review and permitting process for energy projects "has become a target for environmental activists and states that oppose the production and use of fossil fuels." The groups said in an April 5 letter that individual states shouldn't be able to use provisions of the Clean Water Act "to dictate national policy, thereby harming other states and the national interest and damaging co-operative federalism." Trump singled out New York for his harshest criticism, saying "obstruction" by the state "was hurting the country." Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., called Trump's executive order a gross overreach that would undermine his state's ability to protect water quality and the environment. "States must have a role in the process for siting energy infrastructure like pipelines, and any efforts to curb this right to protect our residents will be fought tooth and nail," Cuomo said. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, issued a joint statement with the state's attorney general, Bob Ferguson, calling the executive orders "an unprecedented assault on the right and obligation of every state to protect their waters and their communities." "We intend to challenge any attempt by the administration to illegally constrain Washington's authority to protect our state's natural resources," the governor and attorney general said. One of Trump's executive orders calls for the EPA to consult with states, tribes and others before issuing new guidance and rules for states on how to comply with the Clean Water Act. The order also directs the transportation secretary to propose a rule allowing liquefied natural gas to be shipped in approved rail tank cars, and directs the labour secretary to review whether investment fund managers who invest based on social goals are fulfilling their responsibility to maximize shareholder returns. Environmental groups described Trump's order as an effort to short-circuit a state's ability to review complicated projects. The environmental group Center for Biological Diversity said the orders would mark the fourth time Trump has used executive actions to streamline permits for fossil-fuel infrastructure. "Trump's developing an addiction to executive orders that rubber-stamp these climate-killing projects," said Brett Hartl, the centre's government affairs director. Trump has linked growing gas and oil production in the U.S. with the creation of jobs and a reduction in fuel prices for consumers. He signed the orders while visiting the International Union of Operating Engineers International Training and Education Center, a union-run facility northeast of Houston. Trade groups representing the oil and gas industry applauded the orders and said greater access to natural gas benefits families and the environment. "When states say 'no' to the development of natural gas pipelines, they force utilities to curb safe and affordable service and refuse access to new customers, including new businesses," said Karen Harbert, president and CEO at the American Gas Association. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The second executive order is designed to ease the process for energy projects that cross international borders. Currently, the secretary of state has the authority to issue permits for cross-border infrastructure such as pipelines. The executive order clarifies that the president will make the decision on whether to issue such permits. The move follows Trump's decision last month to issue a new presidential permit for the long-stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline two years after he first approved it and more than a decade after it was first proposed. Trump signed the orders in between campaign fundraisers in San Antonio and Houston that were expected to net at least $6 million for Trump's re-election effort and the Republican Party. ___ Freking reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Richard Lardner and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report. SAN FRANCISCO - Uber is providing a look under the hood of its business in the lead-up to its hotly anticipated debut on the stock market, revealing strong growth but an ongoing struggle to overcome huge losses and repair its reputation. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this March 15, 2017, file photo, a traveler tries to book a ride with Uber at LaGuardia Airport in New York. Uber is providing a look under the hood of its business in the lead-up to its hotly anticipated debut on the stock market. Documents released Thursday, April 11, 2019, offered the most detailed view of the worldAos largest ride-hailing service since its inception a decade ago. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) SAN FRANCISCO - Uber is providing a look under the hood of its business in the lead-up to its hotly anticipated debut on the stock market, revealing strong growth but an ongoing struggle to overcome huge losses and repair its reputation. Documents released Thursday offered the most detailed view of the world's largest ride-hailing service since its inception a decade ago. The massive filing shows Uber has been generating the robust revenue growth that entices investors, but also racked up nearly $8 billion in losses over its 10 years in existence, which mirrors the same trend challenging Lyft, Uber's main rival in the U.S. Uber's revenue totalled $11.3 billion in 2018, a 42% increase from $7.9 billion in 2017, and a giant leap from $495 million in 2014. The company posted a profit of $997 million last year, but that doesn't mean its ride-hailing service suddenly started to make money far from it. The positive result stemmed from a windfall that Uber generated from the sale of its operations in Russia and Southeast Asia. The company said it sustained an operating loss of $3 billion. The San Francisco company also disclosed a legal cloud hanging over its head as government authorities and regulators investigate whether the company broke any laws. Among other things, Uber revealed the U.S. Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into a yearlong coverup of a massive computer break-in during 2016 that heisted personal information belonging to millions of passengers and drivers. The probes are among the many risks that investors must weigh as they mull whether to jump into one of the biggest IPOs in years. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged the self-inflicted wounds that damaged the ride-hailing service's reputation while trying to make the case that the company has rehabilitated itself since he took over 18 months ago. FILE - This March 20, 2018, file photo shows the Uber app on an iPad in Baltimore. Uber is providing a look under the hood of its business in the lead-up to its hotly anticipated debut on the stock market. Documents released Thursday, April 11, 2019, offered the most detailed view of the worldAos largest ride-hailing service since its inception a decade ago. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) He struck his note of contrition and optimism in a letter included in the federal documents. "Some of the attributes that made Uber a wildly successful startup a fierce sense of entrepreneurialism, our willingness to take risks that others might not, and that famous Uber hustle led to missteps along the way," Khosrowshahi wrote, closing his letter by assuring he will run Uber with integrity. Reaching profitability has proven to be a challenge for both Uber and Lyft. Paying drivers is a huge expense, and Uber's fierce competition with Lyft for customers has led both companies to offer rides below cost. Drivers for both companies complain about declining earnings, and they can easily switch between platforms, making it difficult for either company to further reduce driver costs and keep fares cheap for passengers. Uber said it plans to give bonuses to qualified drivers and is setting aside an undisclosed portion of its stock for drivers to buy. Its unprofitable history may force Uber to eventually raise its ride-hailing prices unless it can reduce its costs by shifting to driverless cars or expand into other markets and lines of business. But Uber's operating losses declined from $4 billion in 2017 to $3 billion in 2018, indicating it could be heading in the right direction. "They're showing that they're capable of controlling their costs, which has been a concern of ride sharing companies in general," said SharesPost analyst Alejandro Ortiz. "That's a sign that will be looked on favourably in the next few weeks." Lyft beat Uber to the stock market last month with an IPO that raised $2.3 billion, but its shares have been backsliding after an early run-up. Lyft's stock currently is hovering around $61, down from its IPO price of $72. The rocky start may have prompted Uber to tamp down its IPO ambitions. The company is expected to try to raise roughly $10 billion and seeks a market value of $90 billion to $100 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. That's below earlier estimates of $120 billion. The investment bankers handling Uber's IPO are expected to reveal a pricing range for Uber's shares later this month. That will come before executives head out on a so-called road show designed to drum up interest in the IPO among institutional investors who will be given the first opportunity to buy the stock before it begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange next month. In the end, Uber is widely expected to be the biggest technology IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group went public in 2014. And it's likely to be the largest among U.S. tech companies since Facebook took its bow on Wall Street seven years ago at a time when most people hadn't ever considered using an app on their smartphone to summon a ride from strangers driving their own cars. Uber launched in 2009 as UberCab, a black car service where customers could hail professional drivers with a few taps on a smartphone. It shortened its name to Uber in 2010, distancing itself from the taxicab industry, which has criticized the company for operating under less regulation than the traditional taxi industry. The company operates in 65 countries and has completed 10 billion trips worldwide. Uber is also expanding in other markets such as freight while offering other ways to get around with shared scooters and bikes. Its fast-growing food delivery business, which spans 500 cities globally, doubled its revenue to $757 million in 2018 from $367 million in 2017. But Uber faces challenges that Lyft doesn't because of a series of damaging revelations that sullied its reputation among consumers. The setbacks have included rampant internal sexual harassment and allegations it stole self-driving car technology. The blowback from the problems helped Lyft pick up ground in the U.S. something Uber acknowledged in its filing and led to the ouster of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO in 2017. Now it will be up to Kalanick's successor, Khosrowshahi, to persuade investors that Uber has cleaned up its act and merits a market value higher than Ford Motor and General Motors combined. Kalanick is one of Uber's largest shareholders, owning nearly 9% of the company's stock. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Uber has been investing substantially in self-driving vehicles, which could be critical to reducing driver costs and achieving profitability. It launched its first self-driving test vehicle in 2016 and its self-driving car division has more than 1,000 employees, and it has built more than 250 self-driving cars so far. But it suspended testing when one of its self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona last year. The company resumed testing self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh in December. In its federal filing, Uber warned of the fierce competition it faces on that front from rivals such as Tesla and Google's Waymo, who it said could introduce autonomous vehicles earlier than Uber. The company also warned that potential future regulations or increases in insurance costs could impact the autonomous vehicle business. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, owns 5% of Uber, even as it competes with Uber on self-driving technology. Alphabet also owns roughly 5% of Lyft's stock. __ Bussewitz reported from New York. Marcy Gordon contributed from Washington, D.C. As the U.S. student loan balance surpasses $1.5 trillion, a trio of contests promise a lucky few a shot at putting a dent in their debt. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE- In this Jan. 9, 2019, file photo University of Georgia undergraduate students avoid walking under the university arch on the first day of the spring semester in Athens, Ga. As the U.S. student loan balance surpasses $1.5 trillion, a trio of contests promise a lucky few a shot at putting a dent in their debt. (Joshua L. Jones/Athens Banner-Herald via AP) As the U.S. student loan balance surpasses $1.5 trillion, a trio of contests promise a lucky few a shot at putting a dent in their debt. While most of the over 44 million people with student loan debt can't count on winning an oversized novelty check to pay off their balance, they can turn to tried-and-true tactics like income-driven repayment plans to lower monthly payments or refinancing to pay off student loans fast . But for a select group, these games do bring relief. Here, three winners share behind-the-scenes details about what it's like and what it takes to win. 'PAID OFF' GAME SHOW TruTV's "Paid Off With Michael Torpey" pits contestants against one another to eliminate some or all of their student debt. It returns for a second season in May. Jodeci Richards, 27, of Atlanta won almost $10,000 on the show about enough to wipe out her remaining loans from Florida State University. She filmed the show in March 2018, but didn't receive the payout until after the episode aired in July. In the meantime, she continued making payments. "I didn't want to fall behind," she says. "Navient, Sallie Mae they get a little antsy." BEHIND THE SCENES: The audition process was lengthy, beginning with a Google form application , then phone calls, video interviews, an in-person callback and a background check. Richards said she was a skeptic throughout. "If this is real, they're not going to send a Google form," she remembers thinking. "I wound up actually trying to do a background check on their background checkers, because I wanted to cover myself." NATTY STORIES CONTEST Under its Natural Light brand, Anheuser-Busch is giving away $1 million to help 70 people pay down college debt in 2019. To enter, student loan borrowers must post a video to social media by May 18 about why they went to college. The video must include the green dollar-sign tab found on limited-edition cans of Natural Light, and the social post must include #NattyStories and #Contest. RJ Young, 31, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, won $40,000 in the 2018 contest. His entry explains that he went to college to learn to tell compelling stories, but that he needed student loans to pay for it. Young has a bachelor's, master's and is pursuing a Ph.D. in English. He estimates that he owed over $100,000 before winning. BEHIND THE SCENES: Prize money is taxable income. (Richards' winnings were also taxed.) After Young received his check, he used some of the cash to hire an accountant. The remainder stayed in his bank account for almost a year while Young sorted through how the winnings affected his 2018 income taxes. "It's a first world-problem," Young says. He warns future winners to "be careful who you talk to about it. Not everyone wants to help you." GIVLING APP Givling is a trivia game and crowdfunding effort in which users play for cash prizes and $50,000 toward student loan or mortgage repayment. Players win $50,000 in loan repayment by getting to the top of Givling's queue. They climb the queue by playing trivia, watching ads, buying merchandise, purchasing coins to play extra trivia and using Givling's sponsors, which include SoFi and Uber Eats . The app funds the prizes and makes money from sponsorships, merchandise sales and in-app coin purchases. Once enough is raised, the player at the top of the queue wins $50,000 and the process repeats for the next-in-line player. Rosheeda Sylvestre, 36, of Brooklyn, New York, won in March. At that time, she had about $52,000 in student loans remaining, down from the roughly $100,000 she owed for two bachelor's degrees and a master's. The money is applied directly to winners' loans in eight weekly installments; Sylvestre estimates she'll be debt-free by May. BEHIND THE SCENES: Players get two free trivia games daily, but the most competitive players drop tens of thousands of dollars to race to the top of the queue. Sylvestre says she spent about $10,000 on coins and sponsorship offers, and $11,000 on merchandise. She used a 0% interest credit card that she plans to pay off before interest accrues. She also donated the merchandise she purchased and claimed it as a tax write-off. In total, she spent about $21,000 over nine months before winning. Givling's loan repayment prizes aren't taxable because they're crowdfunded, says Givling Chief Marketing Officer Seth Beard. The trivia cash prizes are taxable. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. ________________________________________ This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Teddy Nykiel is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: teddy@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @teddnykiel. RELATED LINKS NerdWallet: How to pay off student loans fast http://bit.ly/nerdwallet-pay-off-student-loans-fast "Paid Off With Michael Torpey" application https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1/d/e/1FAIpQLSefUU91LExKB4gCajZA48U5ktXvowFyrEBqWmc7ra2OxZPvOg/viewform Givling https://givling.com/givling/ SAN FRANCISCO - Nearly 200 million people who had sensitive information snatched from their Yahoo accounts will receive two years of free credit-monitoring services and other potential restitution in a legal settlement valued at $117.5 million. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2016, file photo, the Yahoo logo appears on a smartphone in Frankfurt, Germany. Nearly 200 million people who had sensitive information snatched from their Yahoo accounts will receive two years of free credit-monitoring services and other potential restitution in a legal settlement valued at $117.5 million. The deal disclosed in documents filed Tuesday, April 9, 2019, revises an earlier agreement struck last October, only to be rejected by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File) SAN FRANCISCO - Nearly 200 million people who had sensitive information snatched from their Yahoo accounts will receive two years of free credit-monitoring services and other potential restitution in a legal settlement valued at $117.5 million. The deal revises an earlier agreement struck last October, only to be rejected by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. The value of that settlement had been pegged at $50 million, but Koh questioned the calculations. A more detailed breakdown used in the revised settlement drove up the estimated cost. The money will be paid by Yahoo's current owner, Verizon, and Altaba, a holdover from Yahoo's past that still owns a stake in Chinese internet company Alibaba Group worth billions of dollars. If approved, the settlement will become part of the financial fallout from digital burglaries that stole personal information from about 3 billion Yahoo accounts in 2013 and 2014 believed to be the biggest data breach ever. And now the $117.5 million settlement could become largest amount ever doled out for a data breach, a recurring problem in an increasingly digitally driven world. It eclipses a $115 million settlement that Koh approved last year to cover 79 million people who had personal information stolen in a 2015 breach at health insurer Anthem Inc. Yahoo didn't begin to disclose the extent of its security breakdown until 2016 amid an FBI investigation that eventually linked some of the hacking to Russia . The revelations brought a mortifying end to the reign of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, eventually prompting the company to reduce its selling price to Verizon by $350 million. Verizon has since written off much of the nearly $4.5 billion price for the Yahoo acquisition in sign of the eroding value of that business. Lawyers representing the Yahoo accountholders estimate about 194 million people in U.S. and Israel will be eligible to make claims, according to court documents. Those people collectively may have had about 896 million of the Yahoo accounts hit in the break-ins. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The biggest piece of the revised Yahoo settlement disclosed in documents filed Tuesday consists of the free credit-monitoring services that will be offered to everyone covered by the deal to protect them from identity theft and other potential problems. The service from AllClear usually costs $14.95 per month, or $359 for two years. People who already have a credit-monitoring service will be eligible for cash payments instead. Yahoo accountholders who paid anywhere for $20 to $50 annually for premium email accounts will be eligible for refunds of up to 25%. People who had to spend time protecting their identities or dealing with other issues caused by the breach can be seek to be paid at a rate of $25 per hour for up to 15 hours. The settlement will also pay up to $32.5 million in fees and other expenses to the lawyers representing Yahoo accountholders, down from the $37.5 million sought in the earlier agreement another sticking point for Koh. As part of the deal, Verizon also has pledged to continue to expand upon the security that it has already added since taking over Yahoo. The Verizon division that includes Yahoo expects to spend an average of about $81 million annually on security from 2018 to 2022, up from average of about $15 million annually from 2013 to 2016 when Yahoo was still independent, according to court documents. "We believe that the settlement demonstrates our strong commitment to security," Verizon said in a statement. John Yanchunis, a lawyer representing Yahoo accountholders, declined to comment. A hearing on the revised settlement is scheduled for June 27. OTTAWA - Jane Philpott's parliamentary privileges were not violated when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau booted her and fellow former cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould out of the Liberal caucus last week, the Speaker of the House of Commons ruled Thursday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Independent MP Jane Philpott arrives at the West block of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Tuesday April 9, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - Jane Philpott's parliamentary privileges were not violated when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau booted her and fellow former cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould out of the Liberal caucus last week, the Speaker of the House of Commons ruled Thursday. Geoff Regan said he has no role in deciding how caucuses should conduct themselves. Moreover, he said the Parliament of Canada Act expressly bars the courts from intervening in such matters. "This leaves caucuses alone with the authority to govern their internal operations," Regan told the Commons. "With the full authority given to caucuses themselves in such unequivocal terms, it is clear that the chair has no role in the interpretation or enforcement of the statute, even when members feel rudderless without what they feel would be clearly stated and understood rules." Philpott argued Tuesday that Trudeau did not follow reforms made to the Parliament of Canada Act in 2015 that were supposed to give MPs more power over caucus decisions including whether to expel members rather than leave them entirely up to party leaders. The reforms required each party caucus to hold recorded votes at their first meeting following an election on whether to adopt the new rules. The Liberals never had such a vote, deciding in 2015 to defer the matter to a party convention instead. But they ultimately informed the Speaker that they had implicitly chosen not to use the new rules. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Trudeau has said he made the decision to turf Philpott and Wilson-Raybould only after extensive consultations showed overwhelming caucus support for kicking the pair out of the Liberal fold. The two former ministers have been at the centre of a political storm that has engulfed the Trudeau government for more than two months. Wilson-Raybould alleges she was improperly pressured last fall by the Prime Minister's Office and others to intervene to stop the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin. She believes she was moved out of the prestigious justice portfolio to Veterans Affairs in a mid-January cabinet shuffle as punishment for refusing to override the director of public prosecutions, who had decided not to invite the Montreal engineering giant to negotiate a remediation agreement, a kind of plea bargain in corporate corruption cases. Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet in mid-February. Philpott followed suit a few weeks later, saying she had lost confidence in the government's handling of the SNC-Lavalin case. The last straw for Liberal MPs was the revelation that Wilson-Raybould surreptitiously recorded a December phone conversation with Michael Wernick, the clerk of the Privy Council, to bolster her claim of improper pressure. Many said they no longer felt they could trust the former ministers. The pair now sit as independents in the Commons and will not be allowed to run as Liberals in this fall's election. A plumber who wanted to run for city council said he was too busy and didnt have the money to file an audited campaign expense statement now faces the prospect of a $5,000 fine and a ban on running in the next election. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A plumber who wanted to run for city council said he was too busy and didnt have the money to file an audited campaign expense statement now faces the prospect of a $5,000 fine and a ban on running in the next election. Filippo Palmisani is one of two individuals who failed to file their audited financial statements by Dec. 24, as required by the city's election bylaw. "I didnt even run and I really didnt get any (campaign) donations," Palmisani said when asked to explain why he hadnt filed the audited statement. "Ive not got tens of thousands of dollars and I havent got time for this s--t, right? When I do my income tax, Ill hand it in. Thats it." I didnt even run and I really didnt get any donations. Filippo Palmisani Palmisani, who registered to run in Point Douglas, and Chad Panting, in Transcona, were among eight registered candidates who ultimately did not file nomination papers and whose names did not appear on the Oct. 24 ballot. Now Palmisani and Panting face penalties that could include a fine of up to $5,000 and a ban from participating in civic elections until after the 2022 general election. Everyone who registered to run in last year's municipal election is required to file an audited financial statement even if they withdrew from the campaign. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files) In a preliminary report to councils governance committee, election officer Richard Kachur said that those eight individuals were required to file their audited financial statements by Dec. 24 but only six of them did. Panting couldnt be reached for comment. Palmisani appeared confused and distracted when told filing an income tax return isn't related to the civic election requirement. "Right, I know that, you know. Like, lookit, Im just in the middle of something right now. Im just a working stiff, OK?," he said. "When I can get it in, Ill get it in." City clerk Marc Lemoine told the committee that all individuals who registered their campaigns were interviewed by civic staff and informed of the requirement for an audited financial statement even if they ultimately withdrew from the campaign as Palmisani and Panting did and they also signed a document acknowledging they were required to provide the statement by the deadline date or they would be subject to prosecution under the bylaw and the City of Winnipeg Charter Act. In addition, each candidate received reminder notices by registered mail and email. "The audited financial statements are important because they provide citizens with an assurance the actual dollars collected for the campaign were utilized and what dollars were actually collected," Lemoine said. Prosecutions are pursued to demonstrate to potential candidates and the public the importance placed on the requirement to file the audited statement, the city says. (John Woods / The Canadian Press files) Ive not got tens of thousands of dollars and I havent got time for this... When I do my income tax, Ill hand it in. Thats it. Filippo Palmisani Lemoine later told the Free Press that the audited campaign statements are a key component of the campaign rebate program for donors, explaining that when an individual claims a rebate for a campaign donation, its verified by the audited statement filed by the candidate. "If you dont file an audited financial statement, there are no rebates issued to anybody who contributed to the campaign as well." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Lemoine said the city pursues prosecutions to demonstrate to potential candidates and the public the importance placed on the requirement to file the audited statement. The largest fine imposed by the court in such circumstances is about $1,400, Lemoine said, pointing out that for individuals who withdrew from the race or didnt file nomination papers, costs for an audited statement would likely run $200 to $300. "Weve been prosecuting individuals since 2006 and weve always been successful: the judge found each one guilty and assigned various penalties," Lemoine said. "The fine is to drive home the point that this is important." Registered candidates who filed nomination papers and whose names actually appeared on the ballot are required to file audited statements by the end of day May 22. Kachur said he will be filing a final report, reviewing the audited financial statements of all the candidates, to council for its July meeting, aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca Bruce Spence, a Cree man living in Winnipeg, is taking on Manitoba Public Insurance in a bid to keep his personalized "NDN CAR" licence plate, which he says is an homage to a classic folk-rock song by an Indigenous artist. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Bruce Spence, a Cree man living in Winnipeg, is taking on Manitoba Public Insurance in a bid to keep his personalized "NDN CAR" licence plate, which he says is an homage to a classic folk-rock song by an Indigenous artist. Spence, who has had the plate for seven years, said the inscription is a reference to the song NDN Kars (Indian Cars) by Anishinabe musician Keith Secola. The song has several official videos on YouTube, one of which includes a strong message from Secola advocating for driving sober and using proper safety restraints for children in vehicles. Bruce Spence, who is from Opaskwayak Cree Nation, hands over his personalized NDN CAR licence plate to an employee at Manitoba Public Insurance after it was revoked for being offensive, in this undated handout photo. (Colleen Simard / Handout / The Canadian Press) A news release Thursday from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said MPI revoked the plate two months ago, telling Spence in a Feb. 7 letter it was in the process of reviewing all personalized plates and Spences plate "has been identified in our review as phrases or innuendos that may be considered offensive." "This underscores how a government agency is not competent to referee evident expressions of humour in culture." John Carpay, Justice Centre president Spence said he turned in the plate to MPI in late February to avoid any possible problems insuring his vehicle if he tried to keep the plate. "I looked at their (MPI) guidelines. They're very clear on sexual innuendo and racist. I can understand that. What I've been asking them is why would you consider this licence plate derogatory or offensive? And I have yet to receive a clear answer," said Spence, a producer with Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. He said it was fun having the plate on his car and seeing the positive reactions it would get, especially from other Indigenous people. "There's nothing like driving through South Dakota and having a Dodge 300 full of traditional warrior types speed by you honking their horns and leaning out the windows waving," Spence said. "And it's a song. It's a good song. I don't know why it doesn't get played on the radio. You can dance to it, sing along with it. It explains so much of our Indigenous culture in the 21st century. 'We're on our way to a pow-wow.' How offensive is that?" After MPI staff phoned Spence in May 2018 to tell him they received a complaint about the plate saying it was "offensive and ethnic slang," he wrote to Manitoba Crown Services Minister Colleen Mayer to explain its context relative to the song and express his concern about MPI going after his licence plate. "I have received nothing but happy smiles and thumbs up signs from fellow travellers across Canada and the United States because people recognize the sign for what it is, a tribute to being an Indigenous person driving a car. This song is an anthem to humble people just trying to get around the best way we can," Spence stated in the letter. He said he'll be taking legal action against MPI over the decision and will be represented at no charge by lawyers from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. When MPI was asked for a comment, a spokesman issued an emailed statement: "As this has now become a litigious matter, MPI will not be providing any further comment." John Carpay, a lawyer and Justice Centre president, said government entities like MPI must consider the Charter right to freedom of expression. "That MPI would go after a personalized plate that playfully refers to a well-liked song that has cultural significance for many Indigenous people demonstrates a lack of cultural sense and understanding," Carpay said in a statement. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "More importantly, this underscores how a government agency is not competent to referee evident expressions of humour in culture." The Court of Queens Bench in Winnipeg heard on April 8 an earlier case of a personalized licence plate revoked by MPI because it said the plate's text was offensive to Indigenous people. MPI revoked Nick Troller's Star Trek-themed "ASIMIL8" personalized plate in 2017. Troller, an avid Star Trek fan, got the plate in 2015 to reflect the well-known words from the alien race the Borg from the TV franchise. He put the ASIMIL8 plate in a border that stated: "We are the Borg" and "Resistance is futile." While Troller's lawyer argued that "assimilate" is just a word, the Manitoba justice lawyer told court the word is inextricably linked to the history of government assimilation policies and cultural genocide involving Indigenous people. The judge has reserved decision in the case. ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca A $1-million neurosurgical microscope gave Lillian Moore her life back last fall, and took nothing away except the cluster of blood vessels in her brain causing debilitating seizures. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A $1-million neurosurgical microscope gave Lillian Moore her life back last fall, and took nothing away except the cluster of blood vessels in her brain causing debilitating seizures. Moore, 16, was playing the piano Thursday to welcome guests at a news conference at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre an activity she is able to do because Dr. Demitre Serletis was able to remove the cavernoma without impacting any other brain tissue. Lillian Moore had a cluster of blood vessels in her brain that caused debilitating seizures. (Sasha Sefter / Winnipeg Free Press) "I wasn't (as) afraid as I thought I would be of it and I think that was mostly because of the (medical) team... They made me know that I was safe and I felt safe throughout," said Lillian, a Grade 11 student at Beaver Brae High School in Kenora, Ont. She said she was home three days after the surgery. "I went back to school the next week, and I've been playing my piano and cheerleading and hanging out with my friends. I'm just so thankful for all of it," Lillian said. "I want people to know how their donations really do go directly to help people." The surgery was done through the Children's Hospital pediatric neurosurgery program at HSC, which has the only Zeiss Kinevo 900 neurosurgical visualization system in Canada. (A children's hospital in Texas has the only other in North America.) Donations are needed to cover $200,000 outstanding on the cost of the microscope, purchased about two years ago by the Children's Hospital. It has been used in about 50 pediatric surgeries and some adult surgeries to treat brain tumours, epilepsy, hydrocephalus, traumatic injuries, vascular disorders such as aneurysms and spinal cord pathologies. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "It's a game changer," Serletis, a neurosurgeon, researcher and director of epilepsy surgery, said of the Zeiss Kinevo 900's magnification, lighting, electronics and robotics technology. It has hands-free adjustments using a foot pedal or mouth piece, so surgeons do not have to put down instruments and their hands can stay fully in the field. "This makes surgery safer, more efficient and faster as well," Serletis said. "The target points of the operation can be saved so that with the flip of a foot pedal, the microscope can come back to a critical part of the operation itself instantly. "There's various light filters that can be used to visualize brain tumours that will literally fluoresce or glow against the background of the normal brain tissue. That is critical because sometimes you just can't very easily tell the difference. It makes removal of deep brain tumours safer, quicker and you can avoid critical structures." Dean Schinkel, chairman of the Children's Hospital Foundation board of directors, said the foundation is grateful for its donors so far "to help make miracles happen," but more help is needed. ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca A provision slipped into the federal budget bill that prevents asylum-seekers rejected in the United States from making a refugee claim in Canada could have been the death of Yahya Samatar if it was in place four years ago. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A provision slipped into the federal budget bill that prevents asylum-seekers rejected in the United States from making a refugee claim in Canada could have been the death of Yahya Samatar if it was in place four years ago. The English-speaking aid worker from Somalia nearly drowned in August 2015, entering Canada via the Red River after an immigration judge rejected his refugee claim in the U.S. There, without a lawyer or online resources to prove he was on al-Shabaab terrorists' hit list for working with international aid groups, Samatar faced being removed to Somalia where he was targeted for death. In Canada, Samatar received legal aid and was able to prove his refugee claim at an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing. If the provision in the omnibus bill released Monday was in effect in 2015, Samatar wouldn't have had a protection hearing in Canada something that worries people who work with claimants. "I am deeply concerned that many genuine refugees will be subject to removal based on mistaken assumptions in this omnibus budget," said Winnipeg immigration lawyer Alastair Clarke. Clarke said he's represented hundreds of claimants who have made irregular crossings into Canada. "I can say with certainty that many genuine refugees are refused in the United States," he said. "They are refused for many reasons, including the fact that many do not have access to counsel, they do not have access to their documents and/or they are put in detention for months if not years while they are waiting for their case to be heard." Canada's system is different its IRB has decided many who have been refused asylum status in the U.S. are genuine refugees, he said. "The proposed amendments to cut access to the IRB for refugee claimants fails to recognize the problem... that the asylum system in the United States is broken." The federal government said it's handling the challenge of rising global migration "in the appropriate way, by upholding international law and providing due process to those claiming asylum." Its new "border enforcement strategy" includes money for 50,000 claims to be processed per year, while removing failed refugee claimants "in a timely manner," said Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux with the Office of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction in Ottawa. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The proposed changes would deter irregular migration and maintain the integrity of Canada's asylum system by preventing access to those who make repeated claims in different countries, Cadieux said. "This encourages those who truly need protection to seek asylum at the first possible opportunity, while those who do not need to follow the rules." Canada will make sure no one is sent to a country where they would be in danger or at risk of persecution, she said. A "pre-removal risk assessment" will give protected person status in Canada to someone found to be at risk, "while those not found at risk will be removed faster," Cadieux said. Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas said the strategy won't solve anything and should be removed from the omnibus bill. Most of the asylum-seekers currently making claims in Canada haven't made a refugee claim in the U.S., Matas said from Chennai, India. "The real problem here is that there are too many human rights violations and too many refugees. We cannot possibly address that problem by changing procedures in Canada's refugee determination system." carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca OTTAWA The Liberals landmark legislation to reform child welfare continues to attract scorn from Manitoba, with a senator mulling a move to exempt the province from the bill. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA The Liberals landmark legislation to reform child welfare continues to attract scorn from Manitoba, with a senator mulling a move to exempt the province from the bill. "The status quo is actually better for us than this legislation," Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas testified Wednesday night to the Senate. "If we pass this legislation as it is today, it will haunt us for generations." The Red Chamber is holding pre-hearings on Bill C-92, which the Commons has not yet passed, in recognition of its importance. The bill aims to allow Indigenous groups to form agreements with Ottawa to take control of Child and Family Services agencies. Bill C-92 comes a year after Ottawa called an emergency summit to deal with the massive disproportion of Indigenous children apprehended by CFS agencies, often for reasons related to poverty. Manitoba leads the country in both the amount and rate of child apprehensions, 87 per cent of which involve Indigenous children. Proponents such as the Assembly of First Nations have hailed the bill as a way of taking a heinous system with links to residential schools and channelling into a way of restoring Indigenous autonomy. Yet, the Senates Aboriginal-affairs committee heard from multiple regional chiefs with concerns about the bill. Dumas feels the legislation doesnt given enough autonomy to Indigenous groups, who could be beholden to provincial and federal rules. It also doesnt ascribe adequate funding to help families avoid getting their children apprehended in the first place, he said. Dumas said the "great hope and aspiration" he had in crafting the legislation with former federal minister Jane Philpott has fallen apart. "Ive been involved with child welfare from a young person. I see the potential, through the generations, of what it is we need to do." he said. "It pains me to say that I would have to abandon this legislation as is." Dumas noted he was raised to sleep "in a communal bed with my family," a practice he continued, despite a provincial law that every child in Manitoba should have their own bed. He also said officials "yank that child out of that community because the individual rights of that child far outweigh the collective rights of his community." The grand chief said he was particularly worried about a requirement to work with provinces in crafting CFS laws. The legislation compels Indigenous groups to make "reasonable efforts" to negotiate with their provinces for a year, before Ottawa imposes rules against a provinces will, but its not clear what that would entail. "Unfortunately, I have no faith in the partners that we have to deal with in Manitoba," Dumas said. "That relationship with the province of Manitoba is essentially nonexistent." Manitoba Sen. Marilou McPhedran floated the idea of an amendment that would exempt the province entirely from the bill. The head of Indigenous Services Canada testified "this legislation is not fixing everything" and is "a starting point" on CFS. AFNs regional chief for Manitoba, Kevin Hart, was part of the committee that crafted the legislation and believes it will be amended further after Ottawa hears from First Nations groups across the country. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files) Yet, Dumas suggested ISC staff were consulting in bad faith. "The bureaucrats that are going around, doing engagement on this bill, have said to my technical people today: doesn't matter what Manitoba says because this bill is going to pass," he testified Wednesday. "If that's the mindset of the people's that we're supposed to be working with, then that's very problematic." A federal spokesman argued the bill will address Dumas concerns. "There is a pressing need for this bill, for clear recognition of jurisdiction, and for the elevation of the importance of Indigenous laws," wrote Kevin Deagle, from the ISC ministers office, summarizing consultations. "This co-developed legislation does just that. It lays out flexible pathways for communities and groups to move forward with their own models and laws." Kevin Hart, AFNs regional chief for Manitoba, was part of the committee that crafted the legislation. The law could be used to enact a bill AMC drafted and allay Dumas' concerns, he said. "Im making sure that theres a thorough analysis done so that we can give it to First Nations to make their own decisions," said Hart, who reached out after the Free Press contacted the ministers office. Hart said some reserves in Manitoba are interested in crafting their own rules through Bill C-92, separate from the AMC bill. He said Ottawa will likely amend its bill after hearing from various First Nations. "I see how some people are very cautious moving forward in that, and have those concerns, and were taking that into account," Hart said. However, Joel Abram, an Iroquois grand chief in Ontario, testified the Liberals were botching the policy. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "The notion that this bill was co-developed is incorrect and insulting. Canada has been aware of the child-welfare crisis for years, but developing this bill was all of a sudden a huge rush at the end of the term." The Senate sees itself as the protector of minority rights and regional interests. A bill that contravenes both would likely attract multiple amendments, while the Commons has just seven sitting weeks before the summer break leading up to the fall election. The Manitoba government has said it was caught off-guard by the legislation when it was tabled Feb. 28, saying there was limited consultation with the province. Conservative Sen. Scott Tannas of Alberta was flabbergasted to hear chiefs were so upset at the legislation, which he saw as a replacement to the rights-recognition framework, a more complex project that ought to enshrine Indigenous self-determination. "This was the easy thing that they picked, because they were in a hurry. Time is ticking now. Wow," he said. dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca OTTAWA Staff at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights spent months figuring out how to respond to the controversy surrounding its prominent display of Aung San Suu Kyi in late 2017, internal documents show. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Staff at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights spent months figuring out how to respond to the controversy surrounding its prominent display of Aung San Suu Kyi in late 2017, internal documents show. The Free Press has learned that as a result of that controversy, the museum will launch an exhibit in June that will highlight Myanmars persecuted Rohingya minority. Some 900 pages of records obtained through an access-to-information request show hundreds of emails and dozens of meetings as the museum carefully crafted its response. "We are vulnerable on this issue," wrote a public relations official to her colleagues. In August 2017, international observers documented incidents in which the army of Myanmar (formerly Burma) burned the villages of ethnic Rohingya. Thousands were killed in the violent attacks and at least 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. A United Nations official called the events a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing." JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS The Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg has dimmed the portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar's leader will be removed from a display at the museum over the humanitarian crisis facing her country's Rohingya Muslims. At the time, Suu Kyi had been hailed as a defender of democracy, enduring 15 years of house arrest for her peaceful opposition to authoritarian rule. Canada bestowed honorary citizenship on Suu Kyi in 2007, and the museum displayed a life-sized image of her among the five other honorary Canadian citizens. But as Myanmars de facto ruler, Suu Kyi played down the atrocities. In July 2018, the Winnipeg museum dimmed the lights that shone on her portrait. "It was a challenging issue for us to deal with for sure but we do deal with a lot of challenging issues," said head curator Jodi Giesbrecht on Tuesday. While visitor logs and online emails urged the museum to remove Suu Kyi from the museum entirely, staff sought more time to consider the best response. On social media, the museum asked the public to weigh in. The issue was flagged in a quarterly meeting with Mayor Brian Bowman, while officials at the federal Canadian Heritage department were kept in the loop. Records show meticulous attention to phrasing Click to Expand Internal documents show museum staff made dozens of small tweaks to their messaging about Aung San Suu Kyi. Staff debated tone and pondered which words to use in Facebook posts, tweets and eventually the signage that was added to Suu Kyis display. Here are some examples: Are we jumping the gun on calling this a genocide? Im not sure we should use emotive adjectives like appalling instead of more museum-ish language. Should we be more specific? They have been (hunted) down, assassinated, disappeared, raped, burnt alive, etc. The brutality of the persecution is worth noting. Were a bit passive in saying the Rohingya are experiencing a humanitarian crisis. Myanmar is the name given to the country by the military junta. Burma is the name used by most activists and also the community. I can ask the curatorial committee how they would refer to the country. Head curator Jodi Giesbrecht said staff members are careful about every word that appears in the museum and on its social-media accounts. People trust museums to be authoritative, responsible sources of accurate information, she said. Human rights is a challenging subject and its one on which people have different points of view and perspectives. And so, when we do put that much thought into this word or that word, we really are trying to think of all those different perspectives. Documents show dozens of edits to small blocks of text for social media, with staff debating how much detail to include, and whether their words were strong enough. Some debated whether the term "genocide" was appropriate. Staff ordered an internal review of how information about the Rohingya is displayed. Last fall, the museum held a public discussion about the atrocities. "We really wanted to take a multi-pronged approach," Giesbrecht said. "Different areas of the museum are able to be responsive in different ways." Raees Ahmed, an Ottawa activist who used to live in Winnipeg, said the museum was much more responsive than ones he reached out to in the United States. Ahmed recounted hours-long meetings senior CMHR officials held with Rohingya people in Canada, to understand what to do about the Suu Kyi display. "I must give credit to the museum for setting the stage, for being at the forefront of taking action," Ahmed said. In March 2018, a staff member proposed a temporary exhibit to look at the plight of the Rohingya. The museum got largely positive attention over its July 2018 decision to dim Suu Kyis portrait, while some questioned what had taken so long. An analysis showed that after the change, more visitors went to that part of the exhibit. They also lingered longer. "They were quicker to act than other civil societies," said Ahmed, noting that Parliament revoked Suu Kyis citizenship months later, and universities cancelled honorary degrees that had been given to her. The museum also dealt with media queries from South Asia, and scathing letters from people who said they had roots in Myanmar. One accused the Winnipeg museum of "targeting of a female politician because of a strong Muslim lobby group," and claimed the atrocities were exaggerated. "We have a role to play in promoting education and dialogue and when you keep that end goal in sight, some of those challenges become more manageable," said Giesbrecht, who personally responded to people who made such claims. Others called the Rohingya "thugs" and "cockroaches." Giesbrecht said she didnt respond to those comments because people weren't interested in a dialogue. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "On social media, the tone is often a bit more belligerent," said Giesbrecht. In June, the museum will launch a temporary exhibit named Time to Act: Rohingya Voices. It will feature images from photographer Kevin Frayer, a former Winnipegger, who documented the 2017 events. It will also feature video interviews museum staff conducted across Canada with Rohingya immigrants. Ahmed helped interpret as staffers conducted interviews from people who recounted everything from surviving human trafficking to building a new life in Canada. Making the videos and gathering cultural artifacts, which will be displayed, delayed the project's launch from last fall until June. "The community feels it has participated, which I believe is essential in a human rights museum," Ahmed said. "It makes it even richer." dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca At 10:57 a.m., the International Space Station crested the horizon in Perth, Australia, orbiting 400 kilometres above the Earth. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. At 10:57 a.m., the International Space Station crested the horizon in Perth, Australia, orbiting 400 kilometres above the Earth. "N A One S S, N A One S S, this is Victor Kilo Six Mike Juliet calling for a scheduled contact. Do you copy? Over." The Australian radio operator's voice crackled through the speakers in the Shaftesbury High School gym in Winnipeg. As teachers held up signs asking students to be quiet, he called 11 times, punctuated by the roar of the open radio channel. Finally, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques answered. "Victor Kilo Six Mike Juliet, this is November Alpha One Sierra Sierra. How do you copy?" Astronaut David Saint-Jacques called Shaftesbury High School from the International Space Station Wednesday and answered questions from students. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press files) With only minutes until the space station moved out of range, the students launched into questions for the astronaut. Grade 9 students from nine schools in the Pembina Trails School Division came to Shaftesbury to hear the call Wednesday morning. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station operators facilitated the connection. Students took turns asking Saint-Jacques questions about space station life, such as how the station is powered, and how astronauts celebrate birthdays. With cookies, it turns out. Grade 12 student Rachel Parson. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) A titter went through the gym as the 49-year-old Canadian said astronauts' urine is recycled back into water. Saint-Jacques also said he relaxes by staring at Earth from the window, and that his wife had sent him "precious packets of home-cooked food" dehydrated by NASA. "I thought that was cute," said Grade 12 student Rachel Parson. Parson has a personal connection to space. Over the summer, she joined a University of Winnipeg Mars simulation study and spent three days at an impact crater near Gypsumville. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "I never expected to be doing anything like this," Parson said of call with Saint-Jacques. "Its crazy that just going to this high school has got me listening to astronauts." Adrian Deakin, the Shaftesbury High School teacher who organized the event. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) Teacher Adrian Deakin said waiting for Saint-Jacques to answer was nerve-wracking, as so much could interfere. "We did everything we could to put things in place," he said. "Today, we have planted a seed with students," Deakin added. "I dont know if its a seed that will germinate in the domain of space or I dont know if it will be any other discipline. But thats not what matters. "What matters is today, students were able to have a personal connection." geralyn.wichers@freepress.mb.ca Whether you think Canadas top priority is the environment or the economy, you should oppose the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX). Take this choose your own adventure to find out why. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Whether you think Canadas top priority is the environment or the economy, you should oppose the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX). Take this "choose your own adventure" to find out why. On Feb. 22, the National Energy Board finished its reconsideration report after a Federal Court of Appeal denied the projects previous approval last summer. The federal government has since purchased the pipeline for $4.5 billion and the TMX will eventually cost approximately $7.4 billion. Cabinet has 90 days to respond to the report and decide whether to approve the project. The boards report recommends the project be approved and declares it is in the public interest of Canadians. However, the report notes several "significant adverse effects" related to resident killer whales, Indigenous cultures, greenhouse gas emissions and even oil spills. The report justifies these harms by appealing to the "considerable benefits of the project," including access to markets, jobs, direct spending and considerable government revenues. This means the report directly weighs economic benefits against environmental harms. Although the present federal government has consistently argued that we can protect the environment while still growing the economy, the TMX tests the governments commitment to both. Are you ready for your adventure? If you value the economy, choose path A. If you value the environment, choose path B. A. The Economic Side The TMX is crucial for us to get our oil to international markets, which will bring economic benefits for Canadians across the country. However, the reports conclusion does not explicitly consider our long-term economic interests. Oil is a non-renewable resource, so the jobs and revenues created by the project will eventually run dry. Instead, the government could invest in resources that reduce our carbon footprint while actually growing the economy. Low-carbon goods and services are worth more than $5.8 trillion globally and are expected to grow three per cent per year. It is estimated that Canadas green building industry already supports 298,000 jobs and is worth $23.5 billion of Canadas GDP. The revenues from such investments would continue to flow far into the future and would include more jobs to set up the new energy infrastructure, as well as jobs that would continue to employ people for decades. Furthermore, the greenhouse gas emissions from the pipeline would contribute significantly to climate change, which will destabilize the international economy. We are already dealing with these consequences and our children will live in a world where Canadas economic prosperity is uncertain. Therefore, the economic benefits of the TMX as outlined in the energy board report do not go far enough to justify the project, even on economic grounds. B. The Environmental Side The conclusion of the report is disappointing. The board chose the economy over the environment, when Canada is already not going to meet our targets of the Paris Agreement. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. However, the kinds of economic benefits detailed in the report are important for Canadians, especially Canadians working in the energy industry in Alberta and B.C. If the TMX is not approved, then many Canadians will be devastated by the loss of jobs and revenues and it is not fair for them to bear this economic burden in order to protect the environment. Instead, why not make the economy work in tandem with our environmental goals by smoothly transitioning to renewable energy in order to ensure a prosperous future for Canadians? If economists and environmentalists work together, then maybe we can arrive at a better solution than the TMX, a solution that actually lives up to the governments promise to protect the environment and grow the economy. Conclusion Whether you chose path A or B, you have arrived at the same conclusion: the project is simply not justified by the energy board report for either environmental or economic reasons. However, both sides of the issue have something to learn from each other about the TMX. If the government really values both the economy and environment, as they say they do, then cabinet will not approve this project. Thanks for playing. Michael Montess is a PhD candidate in philosophy at York University in Toronto. Anna Cooper Reed is a social worker and a MSc/PhD transfer student at the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Both are originally from Winnipeg. YEHUD, Israel - An Israeli spacecraft crashed into the moon just moments before touchdown, failing in an ambitious attempt to make history Thursday as the first privately funded lunar landing. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. In this Monday, Dec. 17, 2018 file photo, technicians stand next to the SpaceIL lunar module, an unmanned spacecraft, on display in a special clean room during a press tour of their facility near Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) YEHUD, Israel - An Israeli spacecraft crashed into the moon just moments before touchdown, failing in an ambitious attempt to make history Thursday as the first privately funded lunar landing. The spacecraft lost communication with ground control during its final descent. Moments later, the mission was declared a failure. "We definitely crashed on the surface of the moon," said Opher Doron of Israel Aerospace Industries. He said the spacecraft's engine turned off shortly before landing, and scientists were still trying to figure out the cause. The spacecraft, called Beresheet, was in pieces scattered at the landing site, he said. Doron nonetheless called the mission an "amazing success," for reaching the moon and coming so close to landing successfully. "It is by far the smallest, cheapest spacecraft ever to get to the moon," he said. Beresheet was about the size of a washing machine. The mishap occurred in front of a packed audience that included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was broadcast live on national television. "We will try again," Netanyahu said. "We reached the moon, but we want to land more comfortably, and that is for the next time." It had been hoped that the small robotic spacecraft, built by the non-profit SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, would match a feat that has been achieved only by U.S., Russia and China. The failure was a disappointing ending to a lunar voyage of 6.5 million kilometres (4 million miles), almost unprecedented in length and designed to conserve fuel and reduce price. The spacecraft hitched a ride on a SpaceX rocket launched from Florida in February. People watch the live broadcast of the SpaceIL spacecraft as it lost contact with Earth in Netanya, Israel, Thursday, April 11, 2019. An Israeli spacecraft has failed in its attempt to make history as the first privately funded lunar mission.The SpaceIL spacecraft lost contact with Earth late Thursday, just moments before it was to land on the moon, and scientists declared the mission a failure. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) For the past two months, Beresheet, which means "Genesis" or "In the Beginning," travelled around the Earth several times before entering lunar orbit. Around 20 minutes before the scheduled landing, engine firings slowed Beresheet's descent. Engineers watched in silence as the craft, its movements streamed live on dozens of screens, glided toward a free-fall. But then the screens showed the engine misfiring, and the velocity surging as it headed toward the lunar surface. Radio signals from the spacecraft, abruptly cut off. Standing before darkened computer screens, controllers declared the mission a failure. The craft crashed near the historic Apollo landing sites. President Reuven Rivlin hosted dozens of youngsters at his official residence, one of several celebrations scheduled across the country. The children, some wearing white and blue spacesuits, appeared confused as the crash unfolded. "We are full of admiration for the wonderful people who brought the spacecraft to the moon," Rivlin said. "True, not as we had hoped, but we will succeed in the end." Beresheet carried a small laser retroreflector from NASA intended to measure magnetic fields and provide insight on the moon's iron core. It also had a time capsule that included a Bible, Israeli cultural symbols and a picture of famed Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the crash of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia in 2003. The head of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, said he regretted the mission didn't succeed, but "I have no doubt that Israel and SpaceIL will continue to explore and I look forward to celebrating their future achievements." Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin expressed his regrets "for what almost was" and tweeted: "Never lose hope--Your hard work, team work, and innovation is inspiring to all!" The Google Lunar X Prize Competition, which offered $20 million for the first privately funded venture to make it to the moon, is what first drove SpaceIL to get Beresheet off the ground. Beresheet made the final cut, but after several deadline extensions, the competition ended last year without a winner. SpaceIL pressed on with its dream, convinced the mission would help inspire Israel's next generation to study science and engineering. The $100 million mission was financed largely by Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn and a handful of other investors. "The second I heard their dream, I wanted to support it," said Kahn. "I knew it would give us in Israel a sense of pride." The XPrize Foundation congratulated the SpaceIL team despite the failed landing. "We're extraordinarily proud they made it this far," said Peter Diamandis, XPrize founder. The XPrize Foundation announced last month it would shell out $1 million as a "moonshot award" if Beresheet stuck its landing. After the crash, Diamandis said it would give SpaceIL the bonus nonetheless. Spacecrafts crash more on other planets than they do on the moon, but the moon has had seen failed missions previously, said American University professor Howard McCurdy, who has written several books about space. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. In the 1960s, before the Apollo lunar landings, NASA sent seven unmanned Surveyor flights to the moon and two failed, he said. "What makes it hard is the conditions the geological and atmospheric conditions are different on the moon and the planets than they are on Earth," McCurdy said. "It makes it really hard to test" the spacecraft's landing back on Earth. Phil Larson of the University of Colorado, who was a space adviser in the Obama White House, said the Israeli effort underlines that "space is still extremely hard, and landing human made objects on other worlds is an utmost challenge." But, he added, "While it failed to land successfully, overall it was a path-breaking and innovative project." ___ Associated Press writers Marcia Dunn at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report. CAIRO - Sudan's military overthrew President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday after months of bloody protests against his repressive 30-year rule. But pro-democracy demonstrators vowed to keep up their campaign in the streets after the military said it would govern the country for the next two years. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Protesters rally at a demonstration near the military headquarters, Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in the capital Khartoum, Sudan. Activists behind anti-government protests in Sudan say security forces have killed at least seven people, including a military officer, in another attempt to break up the sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum. A spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, said clashes erupted again early Tuesday between security forces and protesters who have been camping out in front of the complex in Khartoum since Saturday. (AP Photo) CAIRO - Sudan's military overthrew President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday after months of bloody protests against his repressive 30-year rule. But pro-democracy demonstrators vowed to keep up their campaign in the streets after the military said it would govern the country for the next two years. Al-Bashir's fall came a week after Algeria's long-ruling, military-backed president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was driven from power. Together, the developments echoed the Arab Spring uprisings eight years ago that brought down autocrats across the Mideast. The announcement of the arrest and removal of the 75-year-old al-Bashir was made by a veteran insider in his government, Defence Minister Awad Mohammed Ibn Ouf, who is under U.S. sanctions for links to atrocities in Sudan's Darfur conflict. FILE - In this Dec. 26, 2004, file photo, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (right) received Yemeni president Ali Abdalla Salih (left) at the airport in Khartoum Sunday, December 26, 2004. Sudan's armed forces were to deliver an "important statement" and asked the nation to "wait for it" on Thursday, April 11, 2019, state TV reported, as two senior officials said the military had forced longtime President Omar al-Bashir to step down.(AP Photo/Abd Raouf, File) Ibn Ouf said a military council that will be formed by the army, intelligence and security apparatus will rule for two years, after which "free and fair elections" will take place. Sudan's state-run media later said Ibn Ouf was being sworn in as head of the new council. The defence chief also announced that the military had suspended the constitution, dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency for three months, closed the country's borders and airspace and imposed a curfew. Protesters who were initially jubilant over word of the coup reacted by saying they will not end their nearly week-long sit-in outside the military's headquarters in central Khartoum until a civilian transition government is formed. Well after nightfall, tens of thousands beat drums, sang and chanted slogans against the armed forces and Ibn Ouf. One of the organizations leading the protest said people were staying in streets of defiance of the 10 p.m. curfew. FILE - In this May 10, 2001, file photo, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi , left, is greeted by President Omar El-Bashir, center, upon his arrival in Khartoum for a two-day visit to Sudan. Tens of thousands of Sudanese were making their way to the center of the countryAos capital on Thursday, April 11, 2019, cheering and clapping in celebration as two senior officials said the military had forced longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years in power. (AP Photo/Abdel Raouf, File) "The first one fell, the second will, too!" protesters shouted. And: "They removed a thief and brought in a thief!" "What is happening in Sudan is that the old system is being rebuilt in new clothes," said activist Mohammed Hisham. "I'm 30 years old, and my whole life we have suffered from lack of freedom and continuous threats." Al-Bashir's whereabouts were not immediately known. Ibn Ouf said only that he was being held in "a safe place." Human rights groups urged Sudanese military authorities to hand al-Bashir over to the International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his deadly campaign against insurgents in Darfur. Protesters celebrate in, Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 11, 2019. Tens of thousands of Sudanese were making their way to the center of the countryAos capital on Thursday, cheering and clapping in celebration as two senior officials said the military had forced longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years in power. (AP Photo) Amnesty International's secretary general, Kumi Naidoo, said al-Bashir is wanted for "some of the most odious human rights violations of our generation." In Washington, the U.S. State Department called on the Sudanese military to "follow the will of the people" and "commit to the speedy handover to civilian rule." Al-Bashir came to power in a coup of his own in 1989, backed by the military and Islamist hard-liners. He kept an iron grip on power and brutally suppressed any opposition, while monopolizing the economy through allied businessmen. Over his three decades in control, he was forced to allow the secession of South Sudan after years of war, a huge blow to the north's economy. He became an international pariah over the bloodletting in Darfur. And the U.S. targeted his government repeatedly with sanctions and airstrikes for his support of Islamic militants. FILE - In this file image taken from video, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir speaks at the Presidential Palace, Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, in Khartoum, Sudan. Tens of thousands of Sudanese were making their way to the center of the countryAos capital on Thursday, April 11, 2019, cheering and clapping in celebration as two senior officials said the military had forced longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years in power.(AP Photo/Mohamed Abuamrain, File) Throughout, he was a swaggering figure known to break into dance and wave his cane in front of cheering crowds. The protests involving a mix of young activists, students, professional-employee unions and opposition parties erupted in December and were initially fueled by anger over the deteriorating economy but quickly turned to demands for the president's ouster. Security forces came down hard on the protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition and batons, and the clashes left dozens of people dead. Al-Bashir banned unauthorized public gatherings, imposed a state of emergency and granted sweeping powers to the police. After Bouteflika's resignation in Algeria, the protests escalated and the clampdown grew bloodier, with at least 22 people killed since Saturday. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Word of al-Bashir's overthrow initially set off cheering, dancing and singing in the streets by thousands of protesters, until they heard the official announcement from Ibn Ouf that the military would remain in charge. The defence chief denounced al-Bashir's government for "bad administration, systemic corruption, absence of justice," adding: "The poor became poorer and the rich became richer. Hope in equality has been lost." He also said al-Bashir's crackdown against protesters risked splitting the security establishment and "could cause grave casualties." Mariam al-Mahdi, a leading member of the opposition Umma, called the military's takeover "a dangerous move." "Our demands are clear: We don't want to replace a coup with a coup," al-Mahdi said. __ AP correspondent Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. LONDON - British police on Thursday hauled a bearded and shouting Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy where he was holed up for nearly seven years, and the U.S. charged the WikiLeaks founder with conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to get their hands on government secrets. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/4/2019 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this file photo dated Friday May 19, 2017, watched by the media WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange looks out from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy prior to speaking, in London. London police say they've arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy, it was reported on Thursday, April 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File) LONDON - British police on Thursday hauled a bearded and shouting Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy where he was holed up for nearly seven years, and the U.S. charged the WikiLeaks founder with conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to get their hands on government secrets. Police arrested Assange after the South American nation revoked the political asylum that had protected him in the embassy, and he was brought before a British court the first step in an extradition battle that he has vowed to fight. Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said he decided to evict Assange from the embassy after "repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols," and he later lashed out at him during a speech in Quito, calling the Australian native a "spoiled brat" who treated his hosts with disrespect. FRANK AUGSTEIN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES FILE - In this Friday, May 19, 2017 file photo, Julian Assange greets supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. London police say they've arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy, it was reported on Thursday, April 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File) In Washington, the U.S. Justice Department accused Assange of conspiring with Manning to break into a classified government computer at the Pentagon. The charge was announced after Assange was taken into custody. Assange, 47, took refuge in the embassy in 2012 after he was released on bail in Britain while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations that have since been dropped. He refused to leave the embassy, fearing arrest and extradition to the U.S. for publishing classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks. Manning, who served several years in prison for leaking troves of classified documents before her sentence was commuted by then-President Barack Obama, is again in custody in Alexandria, Virginia, for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. Manning's legal team said the indictment against Assange showed prosecutors didn't need her testimony and called for her to be released, saying her continued detention would be "purely punitive." Over the years, Assange used Ecuador's embassy as a platform to keep his name before the public, frequently making appearances on its tiny balcony, posing for pictures and reading statements. Even his cat became famous. FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2012 file photo, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, arrives at the Supreme Court in London.Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday, April 11, 2019 for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File) But his presence was an embarrassment to U.K. authorities, who for years kept a police presence around the clock outside the embassy, costing taxpayers millions in police overtime. Such surveillance was removed in 2015, but the embassy remained a focal point for his activities. Video posted online by Ruptly, a news service of Russia Today, showed several men in suits pulling a handcuffed Assange out of the embassy and loading him into a police van while uniformed British police formed a passageway. Assange, who shouted and gestured as he was removed, sported a full beard and slicked-back grey hair. He later appeared in Westminster Magistrates' Court, where District Judge Michael Snow wasted no time in finding him guilty of breaching his bail conditions, flatly rejecting his assertion that he had not had a fair hearing and a reasonable excuse for not appearing. "Mr. Assange's behaviour is that of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests," Snow said. "He hasn't come close to establishing 'reasonable excuse.'" A police vehicle parked outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019. Police in London say they've arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy on a court warrant dating back to 2012. In a statement Thursday, police said Assange has been taken into "custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster Magistrates' Court as soon as is possible." (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) Assange waved to the packed public gallery as he was taken to the cells. His next appearance was set for May 2 via prison video-link in relation to the extradition case. Assange's attorney, Jennifer Robinson, said he will fight any extradition to the U.S. "This sets a dangerous precedent for all journalist and media organizations in Europe and around the world," she said. "This precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States." Asked at the White House about the arrest, President Donald Trump declared , "It's not my thing," and "I know nothing about WikiLeaks," despite praising the anti-secrecy organization dozens of times during his 2016 campaign. Police carry WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London after he was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019. Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday, April 11, 2019 for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum. (@DailyDOOH/PA via AP) Assange has been under U.S. Justice Department scrutiny for years for WikiLeaks' role in publishing government secrets. He was an important figure in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe as investigators examined how WikiLeaks obtained emails that were stolen from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and Democratic groups. "The bottom line is that he has to answer for what he has done," Clinton said later Thursday, at a speaking event with husband Bill Clinton. WikiLeaks quickly drew attention to U.S. interest in Assange and said that Ecuador had illegally terminated Assange's political asylum "in violation of international law." "Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to de-humanise, de-legitimize and imprison him," the group said in a tweet over a photo of Assange's smiling face. The Grand Jury Indictment against Julian Assange, released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Thursday, April 11, 2019, is photographed in Washington. The U.S. Justice Department has charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer. (AP Photo/Wayne Partlow) But in Assange's native Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australian Broadcasting Corp. he had no plans to intervene in the case as the charge was a "matter for the United States" and had nothing to do with Australia. Consular officials were to visit him Friday in jail. Ecuadorian officials suggested Assange's own behaviour was to blame. Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said Assange's mental and physical health worsened while he was holed up, and he began to act aggressively toward his hosts, including smearing feces on the walls of the embassy. In a fiery speech in Ecuador, Moreno called him an ungrateful and "miserable hacker" who treated embassy officials poorly. Spanish human rights lawyer and Julian Assange defense team member Baltasar Garzon speaks with the media in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, April 11, 2019. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was forcibly bundled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and into a waiting British police van on Thursday, setting up a potential court battle over attempts to extradite him to the U.S. to face charges related to the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents. (AP Photo/Paul White) "When you're given shelter, cared for and provided food, you don't denounce the owner of the house," Moreno said to applause at an event outside Quito. "From now on we'll be more careful in giving asylum to people who are really worth it and not miserable hackers whose only goal is to destabilize governments," he added. "We are tolerant, calm people, but we're not stupid." Other Ecuadorian officials in Quito accused supporters of WikiLeaks and two Russian hackers of trying to destabilize the country as the standoff with Assange intensified recently. Romo said a close collaborator of WikiLeaks had travelled with former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino this year to several countries including Peru, Spain and Venezuela to try to undermine the Ecuadorian government. She also said a person close to Assange had been detained at Quito's airport trying to fly to Japan. The person, who she did not identify, is accused of conspiring against the Ecuadorian government. Julian Assange gestures as he arrives at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, after the WikiLeaks founder was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019. Police in London arrested WikiLeaks founder Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy Thursday, April 11, 2019 for failing to surrender to the court in 2012, shortly after the South American nation revoked his asylum .(Victoria Jones/PA via AP) Later Thursday, a senior Ecuadorian official said a Swedish software developer living in Quito had been arrested at the airport as authorities attempt to dismantle a blackmail ring that in recent days had threatened to retaliate against Moreno. The official identified the person as Ola Bini. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity and didn't provide any additional details about Bini. On a blog, a Swedish man of the same name describes himself as a software developer working in Quito for the Center for Digital Autonomy, a group based in Ecuador and Spain focused on privacy, security and cryptography issues. It makes no mention of any affiliation with Wikileaks. On Twitter earlier Thursday, Bini called claims by the Interior Minister that Russian hackers and someone close to Wikileaks were working inside Ecuador "very worrisome" news and said events looked like a "witch hunt." But former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa called Moreno's decision "cowardly," accusing him of retaliating against Assange for WikiLeaks spreading allegations about an offshore bank account purportedly linked to Moreno's family and friends. On Wednesday, WikiLeaks accused Ecuador's government of an "extensive spying operation" against him. It alleges that meetings with lawyers and a doctor in the embassy over the past year were secretly filmed. Speaking in the U.K. Parliament after the arrest, British Prime Minister Theresa May said it showed that "no one is above the law." Moreno appeared to suggest a swift extradition to the U.S. was unlikely. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "In line with our strong commitment to human rights and international law, I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr. Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty," Moreno said. "The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules." Edward Snowden, the former security contractor who leaked classified information about U.S. surveillance programs, called Assange's arrest a blow to media freedom. "Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the U.K.'s secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of like it or not award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books," Snowden tweeted from Russia, which has granted him permission to stay there while he is wanted by the U.S. "Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom." ___ Associated Press writers Kelvin Chan and Gregory Katz in London; Joshua Goodman in Caracas, Venezuela; Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador; and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report. Follow AP's coverage of the arrest of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange at https://www.apnews.com/WikiLeaks 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. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at contact@marketbeat.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. Aston Bay Holdings Ltd., an exploration stage company, acquires, explores, and develops mineral properties in North America. The company explores for copper, zinc, lead, silver, gold, and precious metal deposits. It holds a 100% interest in the Storm Copper and Seal Zinc project that consists of 118 contiguous mining claims and 12 prospecting permits covering an area of approximately 381,468 hectares on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada, as well as holds an interest in the Blue Ridge Project located in central Virginia, the United States. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Read More Bechtle AG provides information technology services primarily in Europe. The company operates in two segments, IT System House & Managed Services, and IT E-Commerce. The IT System House & Managed Services segment offers IT strategy consulting, hardware and software selling, project planning and implementation, system integration, IT services, and training for IT operation. It provides applications for business intelligence, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, product life-cycle management, computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing, product data management, enterprise content management, document management systems, artificial intelligence, and collaboration; and modern workplace solutions. This segment also offers data center, networking, security, consulting, managed, professional, financial, and remarketing services. The IT E-Commerce segment provides hardware and software products, and peripherals with a multi-brand portfolio that comprises approximately 40,000 products through an online shop and telesales. This segment also offers e-procurement services. The company also provides design, development, and implementation of software services. It serves customers in the fields of industry, trade, finance, and the public sector. Bechtle AG was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Neckarsulm, Germany. Read More JOST Werke AG manufactures and supplies safety-critical systems for the commercial vehicle industry. The company offers truck and trailer components, including sensor systems and lubrication systems, fifth wheel couplings and mounting plates, dual-height fifth wheel systems, sliders, kingpins, ball bearing turntables and slewing rings, landing gears, and hubodometers and axle caps; container equipment, such as components for intermodal transports, twist locks, bolsters, lifting frames for swap bodies, airbag lifting devices, and spare wheel holders; and axle systems and its spare parts. It also provides products for commercial vehicles comprising towing hitches, shunting couplings, traverses, varioblocs, adapter hitches, towing balls and eyes, wear gauges/tools, screw sets, and upgrade and repair kits; products for agriculture and forestry applications, including towing and ball hitches, drawbars, piton fixes, ladders, calotte and towing eyes, and accessories. In addition, the company drawbars, height adjustment systems, towbar pipes, and spare parts and accessories; and cylinder technologies, safety equipment, and hydraulic kit solutions. It markets its products under the JOST, ROCKINGER, TRIDEC, Quicke, and Edbro brand names in Europe, North America, Asia, Pacific, and Africa. The company was formerly known as Cintinori Holding GmbH and changed its name to JOST Werke AG in July 2017. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Neu-Isenburg, Germany. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Lennar: 360 Developers LLC, Alliance Financial Services Inc., Ann Arundel Farms Ltd., Aquaterra Utilities Inc., Arbor Mill Veteran Project 2018 LLC, Asbury Woods L.L.C., Astoria Options LLC, Autumn Creek Development Ltd., Aylon LLC, Azusa Associates LLC, B2 Milpitas LLC, BB Investment Holdings LLC, BCI Properties LLC, BMR Communities LLC, BMR Construction Inc., BMTD LLC, BPH I LLC, Bainebridge 249 LLC, Bay Colony Expansion 369 Ltd., Bellagio Lennar LLC, Belle Meade LEN Holdings LLC, Belle Meade Partners LLC, Black Mountain Ranch LLC, Blue Horizons Estates LLC, Bonterra Lennar LLC, Bramalea California Inc., Bressi Gardenlane LLC, Breton Park Lennar LLC, CAP IL 1 LLC, CL Ventures LLC, CML INACTIVE LLC, CML-MO HAF LLC, CML-MO HAF PARKING LLC, CP Block 6aS LLC, CP Block 8aS LLC, CP Block 9aS LLC, CP Center Apartments LLC, CP Center Garage LLC, CP Red Oak Partners Ltd., CP Vertical Development Co. 1 LLC, CP/HPS Development Co. GP LLC, CP/HPS Development Co.-C LLC, CPFE LLC, CPHP Development LLC, CalAtlantic Financial Services Inc., CalAtlantic Group, CalAtlantic Group Inc., CalAtlantic Homes of Arizona Inc., CalAtlantic Homes of Georgia Inc., CalAtlantic Homes of Texas Inc., CalAtlantic Homes of Washington Inc., CalAtlantic Mortgage Inc., CalAtlantic National Title Solutions LLC, CalAtlantic Title Agency LLC, CalAtlantic Title Group LLC, CalAtlantic Title Inc., CalAtlantic Title LLC, CalAtlantic Title of Maryland Inc., Camarillo Village Park LLC, Cambria L.L.C., Candlestick Retail Member LLC, Cardiovascular Medical Specialists LLC, Carolina Blue LLC, Carson 175 LLC, Cary Woods LLC, Casa Marina Development LLC, Central Park West Holdings LLC, Cherrytree II LLC, Club Bonterra Lennar LLC, Coco Palm 82 LLC, Colonial Heritage LLC, Columbia National Risk Retention Group Inc., Commonwealth Incentive Fee LLC, Concord Station LLP, Coventry L.L.C., Creekside Crossing L.L.C., Crest at Fondren Investor LLC, DBJ Holdings LLC, DCA Financial LLC, DTC Holdings of Florida LLC, Darcy-Joliet L.L.C., Durrell 33 LLC, EL Ventures LLC, EV LLC, Eagle Bend Commercial LLC, Eagle Home Mortgage LLC, Estates Seven LLC, Evergreen Village LLC, F&R QVI Home Investments USA LLC, FLORDADE LLC, Faria Preserve LLC, Fidelity Guaranty and Acceptance Corp., Fidelity Land LLC, Fox-Maple Associates LLC, Friendswood Development Company LLC, GDI MANAGER LLC, Garco Investments LLC, Greystone Construction Inc., Greystone Homes of Nevada Inc., Greystone Nevada Holdings LLC, Greystone Nevada LLC, Greywall Club L.L.C., HCC Investors LLC, HPS Development Co. LP, HPS Vertical Development Co. LLC, HPS Vertical Development Co.-B LP, HPS Vertical Development Co.-D/E LLC, HPS1 Block 1 LLC, HPS1 Block 48-1A LLC, HPS1 Block 48-1B LLC, HPS1 Block 48-2A LLC, HPS1 Block 48-2B LLC, HPS1 Block 48-3A LLC, HPS1 Block 48-3B LLC, HPS1 Block 50 LLC, HPS1 Block 51 LLC, HPS1 Block 52 LLC, HPS1 Block 53 LLC, HPS1 Block 54 LLC, HPS1 Block 55 LLC, HPS1 Block 56/57 LLC, HSP Arizona Inc., HTC Golf Club LLC, Hammocks Lennar LLC, Harbor Highlands Group LLC, Harveston LLC, Haverton L.L.C., Heathcote Commons LLC, Heritage Pkwy East Holdings LLC, Heritage of Auburn Hills L.L.C., Hewitts Landing Trustee LLC, Hingham Properties LLC, Huntley Venture L.L.C., Inactive Companies LLC, Independence L.L.C., Independence Orlando LLC, Isles at Bayshore Club LLC, KMC Real Estate Investors LLC, Kendall Hammocks Commercial LLC, Kentuckiana Medical Center LLC, Kingman Lennar LLC, LB/L Duc III Antioch 330 LLC, LCD Asante LLC, LCI Downtown Doral Investor LLC, LCI North DeKalb Investor GP LLC, LCI North DeKalb Investor LP LLC, LEN - Belle Meade LLC, LEN - OBS Windemere LLC, LEN - Palm Vista LLC, LEN BPT Investor LLC, LEN Mirada Investor LLC, LEN Notarize Investor LLC, LEN OT Holdings LLC, LEN Paradise Cable LLC, LEN Paradise Operating LLC, LEN-CG South LLC, LEN-Cypress Mill LLC, LEN-Ryan 1 LLC, LEN-Touchstone LLC, LENH I LLC, LENNAR HOMES OF TENNESSEE LLC, LFS Holding Company LLC, LH Eastwind LLC, LHI Renaissance LLC, LMC 10th & Acoma Holdings LP, LMC 144th and Grant Investor LLC, LMC 2401 Blake Street Holdings LLC, LMC 2401 Blake Street Investor LLC, LMC 360 Acoma Holdings LP, LMC 410 S Wabash Holdings LLC, LMC 808 Gateway Holdings LLC, LMC 808 Gateway Investor LLC, LMC 8th Avenue Apartment Investor LLC, LMC 990 Bannock Holdings LLC, LMC Axis Westminster Holdings LLC, LMC Axis Westminster Investor LLC, LMC Berry Hill Lofts Holdings LLC, LMC Berry Hill Lofts Investor LLC, LMC Block 42 Holdings LLC, LMC Build to Core III Investor LLC, LMC Build to Core III LLC, LMC Burnside Holdings LLC, LMC Burnside Investor LLC, LMC Chandler and McClintock Holdings LLC, LMC Charlestowne Holdings LLC, LMC Charlotte Ballpark Developer LLC, LMC Cityville Oak Park Holdings LLC, LMC Cityville Oak Park Investor LLC, LMC Cobalt Holdings LLC, LMC Costa Mesa Holdings LP, LMC Crest at Park West Holdings LP, LMC Denver Gateway I Investor LLC, LMC Denver Gateway II Holdings LLC, LMC Development LLC, LMC Downtown Doral South Holdings LLC, LMC Durham Gateway Holdings LP, LMC Evans School Holdings LLC, LMC Gateway Investor LLC, LMC Gateway Venture LLC, LMC Gilman Square Investor LLC, LMC Horton Street Holdings LLC, LMC Huntington Crossing Holdings LLC, LMC Inactive Companies LLC, LMC Lakeside Holdings LP, LMC Leya Holdings LLC, LMC Living Illinois LLC, LMC Living Inc., LMC Living LLC, LMC Living TRS LP, LMC Millenia Investor II LLC, LMC NE Minneapolis Lot 2 Holdings LLC, LMC New Bern Investor LLC, LMC North Park Holdings LP, LMC Parkfield Holdings LLC, LMC Parkfield Investor LLC, LMC Righters Ferry Holdings LLC, LMC River North Holdings LLC, LMC Spring Street Investor LLC, LMC Stonewall Station Investor LLC, LMC Triangle Square Investor LLC, LMC Venture Developer LLC, LMC Verbena Holdings LLC, LMC West Loop Investor LLC, LMCFX Investor LLC, LMCPNW Marymoor Holdings LLC, LMI - Jacksonville Investor LLC, LMI - South Kings Development Investor LLC, LMI - West Seattle Holdings LLC, LMI - West Seattle Investor LLC, LMI - West Seattle LLC, LMI Cell Tower Investors LLC, LMI City Walk Investor LLC, LMI Collegedale Investor LLC, LMI Collegedale LLC, LMI Contractors LLC, LMI Glencoe Dallas Investor LLC, LMI Lakes West Covina Investor LLC, LMI Largo Park Investor LLC, LMI Las Colinas Station LLC, LMI Naperville Investor LLC, LMI Pacific Tower LLC, LMI Park Central Two LLC, LMI Peachtree Corners Investor LLC, LMI Peachtree Corners LLC, LMI-JC Developer LLC, LMI-JC LLC, LMV 1640 Broadway REIT-DC LP, LMV 1701 Ballard REIT-DC LP, LMV 19H REIT-DC LP, LMV 2026 Madison REIT-DC LP, LMV 85 South Union REIT-DC LP, LMV ATown REIT-DC LP, LMV Annapolis REIT-DC LP, LMV Apache Terrace REIT-DC LP, LMV Block 42 REIT-DC LP, LMV Bloomington REIT-DC LP, LMV Bolingbrook REIT-DC LP (DE), LMV Central at McDowell REIT-DC LP, LMV East Village I REIT-DC LP, LMV Edina REIT-DC LP, LMV Fremont WS I REIT-DC LP, LMV Glisan REIT-DC LP, LMV Grand Bay REIT-DC LP, LMV II Grand Bay Pod V Holdings LP, LMV II Kierland Holdings LP, LMV II NoMo Holdings LP, LMV II Venture Developer LLC, LMV II Wynwood Holdings LP, LMV Kirkland REIT-DC LP, LMV Little Italy REIT-DC LP, LMV M Tower REIT-DC LP, LMV Millenia II REIT-DC LP, LMV Milpitas REIT-DC LP, LMV NE Minneapolis REIT-DC LP, LMV Oak Park REIT-DC LP, LMV One20Fourth REIT-DC LP, LMV QR Build to Core Manager LLC, LMV Rio Bravo REIT-DC LP, LMV Scottsdale Quarter REIT-DC LP, LMV Tysons REIT-DC LP, LMV Vallagio III REIT-DC LP, LMV Victory Block G REIT-DC LP, LMV Warren Street REIT-DC LP, LNC Communities II LLC, LNC Communities IV LLC, LNC Communities V LLC, LNC Communities VI LLC, LNC Communities VII LLC, LNC Communities VIII LLC, LNC Pennsylvania Realty Inc., LNC at Meadowbrook LLC, LNC at Ravenna LLC, LS College Park LLC, LS Terracina LLC, LV Opendoor Investor LLC, LV Opendoor JV LLC, LW D'Andrea LLC, Lagoon Valley Residential LLC, Lakelands at Easton L.L.C., Legends Club LLC, Legends Golf Club LLC, Len - Little Harbor LLC, Len FW Investor LLC, Len Paradise LLC, Len-Angeline LLC, Len-Hawks Point LLC, Len-Land LLC, Len-Land West LLC, Len-MN LLC, Len-Verandahs LLP, LenCom LLC, LenFive LLC, LenFive Opco GP LLC, LenFive Sub III LLC, LenFive Sub LLC, LenFive Sub Opco GP LLC, Lenalto CMBS LLC, Lencraft LLC, Lennar Aircraft I LLC, Lennar Arizona Construction Inc., Lennar Arizona Inc., Lennar Associates Management Holding Company, Lennar Associates Management LLC, Lennar Avenue One LLC, Lennar Berkeley LLC, Lennar Bevard LLC, Lennar Bridges LLC, Lennar Buffington Colorado Crossing L.P., Lennar Buffington Zachary Scott L.P., Lennar Carolinas LLC, Lennar Central Park LLC, Lennar Central Region Sweep Inc., Lennar Chicago Inc., Lennar Cobra LLC, Lennar Colgate Urban Renewal Development LLC, Lennar Colorado LLC, Lennar Colorado Minerals LLC, Lennar Commercial LLC, Lennar Communities Development Inc., Lennar Communities Inc., Lennar Communities Nevada LLC, Lennar Communities of Chicago L.L.C., Lennar Concord LLC, Lennar Construction Inc., Lennar Cory Road LLC, Lennar Courts LLC, Lennar Developers Inc., Lennar Ewing LLC, Lennar Financial Services LLC, Lennar Flamingo LLC, Lennar Fresno Inc., Lennar Gardens LLC, Lennar Georgia Inc., Lennar Greer Ranch Venture LLC, Lennar Heritage Fields LLC, Lennar Hingham Holdings LLC, Lennar Hingham JV LLC, Lennar Homes Holding LLC, Lennar Homes LLC, Lennar Homes NJ LLC, Lennar Homes of Arizona Inc., Lennar Homes of California Inc., Lennar Homes of Indiana Inc., Lennar Homes of Texas Land and Construction Ltd., Lennar Homes of Texas Sales and Marketing Ltd., Lennar Homes of Utah Inc., Lennar International Holding LLC, Lennar International LLC, Lennar Lakeside Investor LLC, Lennar Layton LLC, Lennar Living LLC, Lennar Lytle LLC, Lennar MF Holdings LLC, Lennar MPA LLC, Lennar MPA WIP LLC, Lennar Mare Island LLC, Lennar Marina A Funding LLC, Lennar Massachusetts Properties Inc., Lennar Middletown LLC, Lennar Monmouth Redevelopers LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture GP LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture GP Subsidiary LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture GP Victory Block G Mezz LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture II GP LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture II GP Subsidiary LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture II LP LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture II Manager LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture LP LLC, Lennar Multifamily BTC Venture Manager LLC, Lennar Multifamily Builders LLC, Lennar Multifamily Communities LLC, Lennar Multifamily Venture DC LP, Lennar New Jersey Holdings LLC, Lennar New Jersey Properties Inc., Lennar New York LLC, Lennar Northeast Properties LLC, Lennar Northwest Inc., Lennar OHB LLC, Lennar PI Acquisition LLC, Lennar PI Property Acquisition LLC, Lennar PIS Management Company LLC, Lennar Pacific Inc., Lennar Pacific Properties Inc., Lennar Pacific Properties Management Inc., Lennar Plumsted Urban Renewal LLC, Lennar Point LLC, Lennar QR Build to Core GP LLC, Lennar QR Build to Core LP LLC, Lennar Realty Inc., Lennar Reno LLC, Lennar Riverwalk LLC, Lennar Sacramento Inc., Lennar Sales Corp., Lennar Sierra Sunrise LLC, Lennar Spencer's Crossing LLC, Lennar Sun Ridge LLC, Lennar Texas Holding LLC, Lennar Ventures LLC, Lennar West Valley LLC, Lennar Winncrest LLC, Lennar at Franklin LLC, Lennar at Jackson LLC, Lennar at Marlboro 79 LLC, Lennar at Monroe LLC, Lennar.com Inc., Longleaf Acquisition LLC, Lori Gardens Associates II LLC, Lori Gardens Associates III LLC, Lori Gardens Associates L.L.C., Lorton Station LLC, Lyons Lennar Farms LLC, Madrona Ridge L.L.C., Madrona Village L.L.C., Madrona Village Mews L.L.C., Majestic Woods LLC, Maple and Broadway Holdings LLC, Menifee Development LLC, Mid-County Utilities Inc., Miralago West Lennar LLC, Mission Viejo 12S Venture LP, Mission Viejo Holdings Inc., Motomic Diagnostics LLC, Multibank 2009-1 CML-ADC Venture LLC, Multibank 2009-1 RES-ADC Venture LLC, NC Properties I LLC, NC Properties II LLC, North American Asset Development LLC, Northbridge L.L.C., OHC/Ascot Belle Meade LLC, One SR L.P., PD-Len Boca Raton LLC, PG Properties Holding LLC, POMAC LLC, PT Metro LLC, Pace Drive Holdings LLC, Palm Gardens At Doral Clubhouse LLC, Palm Gardens at Doral LLC, Palm Springs Classic LLC, Palm Vista Preserve LLC, Patuxent Infrastructure Inc., Pioneer Meadows Development LLC, Pioneer Meadows Investments LLC, Plaza Condominium Ventures LLC, Portside Marina Developers L.L.C., Portside SM Associates L.L.C., Portside SM Holdings L.L.C., Portside Shipyard Developers L.L.C., Prestonfield L.L.C., Quail Roost Lennar LLC, RCCF GP II LLC, RCCF GP III LLC, RCCF GP IV LLC, RCCF GP LLC, RES-FL EIGHT LLC, RES-FL SEVEN LLC, RES-FL VISION ONE LLC, RES-FL VISION TWO LLC, RES-GA CASCADE LLC, RES-GA DIAMOND MEADOWS LLC, RES-GA KAP LLC, RES-GA SOUTHERN PLANTATION LLC, RES-GA THIRTEEN LLC, RES-GA TWELVE LLC, RES-GA WEST LLC, RES-IL ONE LLC, RES-NC ONE LLC, RES-PA LSJ LLC, RES-PA POM LLC, RES-TX BOULEVARD LLC, RH Insurance Company Inc., RH MOA BBCMS 2017-C1 LLC, RH MOA CF 2017-C8 LLC, RH MOA LLC, RH MOA U 2017-C4 LLC, RH MOA U 2017-C6 LLC, RIAL 2014-LT5 CLASS B LLC, RIAL 2014-LT5 LLC, RL BB FINANCIAL LLC, RL BB INACTIVE LLC, RL BB-AL LLC, RL BB-FL ALHI LLC, RL BB-GA LLC, RL BB-GA RMH LLC, RL BB-IL LLC, RL BB-IN AA LLC, RL BB-IN KRE LLC, RL BB-IN KRE OP LLC, RL BB-IN KRE RE LLC, RL BB-MS LLC, RL BB-NC LLC, RL BB-OH LLC, RL BB-SC BROOKSA LLC, RL BB-SC CLR II LLC, RL BB-SC CLR III LLC, RL BB-SC CLR IV LLC, RL BB-SC CLR LLC, RL BB-SC CRRC LLC, RL BB-SC RACEDAY LLC, RL BB-TN BRISTOL LLC, RL BB-TN LLC, RL BB-TN RACEDAY TOWER LLC, RL BB-TX LLC, RL BB-WV LLC, RL CMBS Holdings LLC, RL CML 2009-1 Investments LLC, RL REGI ARKANSAS LLC, RL REGI Alabama LLC, RL REGI FINANCIAL LLC, RL REGI Florida LLC, RL REGI GEORGIA LLC, RL REGI INACTIVE LLC, RL REGI KANSAS LLC, RL REGI MISSISSIPPI LLC, RL REGI MISSOURI LLC, RL REGI NORTH CAROLINA LLC, RL REGI SOUTH CAROLINA LLC, RL REGI TENNESSEE LLC, RL REGI VIRGINIA LLC, RL REGI-AL HP LLC, RL REGI-AL VRC LLC, RL REGI-FL CRC LLC, RL REGI-FL ESH LLC, RL REGI-FL FT. PIERCE LLC, RL REGI-FL GDL LLC, RL REGI-FL ITALIA LLC, RL REGI-FL MRED LLC, RL REGI-FL RDI LLC, RL REGI-FL SARASOTA LLC, RL REGI-FL TPL LLC, RL REGI-FL VARC LLC, RL REGI-GA DRAD LLC, RL REGI-GA HAY DB LLC, RL REGI-GA MHU LLC, RL REGI-GA MPD LLC, RL REGI-GA RLR LLC, RL REGI-MO GMB LLC, RL REGI-MO MOSCOW MILLS LLC, RL REGI-MS Double H LLC, RL REGI-MS OCEAN SPRINGS LLC, RL REGI-NC CIL LLC, RL REGI-NC LITTLE WING LLC, RL REGI-NC MLD LLC, RL REGI-NC Mland LLC, RL REGI-NC RALEIGH LLC, RL REGI-NC SUGARM LLC, RL REGI-NM LLC, RL REGI-SC CTL LLC, RL REGI-SC LAKE E LLC, RL REGI-SC TDG LLC, RL REGI-SC TIG LLC, RL REGI-TN OAK LLC, RL REGI-TN SEVIERVILLE LLC, RL RES 2009-1 Investments LLC, RMF Alliance LLC, RMF Commercial LLC, RMF PR New York LLC, RMF Partner LLC, RMF SUB 1 LLC, RMF SUB 2 LLC, RMF SUB 3 LLC, RMF SUB 4 LLC, RMF SUB 5 LLC, RMV LLC, Raintree Village II L.L.C., Raintree Village L.L.C., Ral-Len BM LLC, Ral-Len LLC, Rannel Capital WeWork Series D LLC, Rannel Holdings LLC, Rannel Interests LLC, Rannel Investments LLC, Rannel Mortgage Investments LLC, Rannel Proprietary Investments LLC, Renaissance Joint Venture, Reserve @ Pleasant Grove II LLC, Reserve @ Pleasant Grove LLC, Reserve at River Park LLC, Reserve at South Harrison LLC, Rialto Commercial Mortgage Securities LLC, Rialto Credit Partnership GP LLC, Rialto Mezz Partners GP LLC, Rialto Mortgage Finance LLC, Rialto Partners GP II LLC, Rialto Partners GP III - Debt LLC, Rialto Partners GP III - Property LLC, Rialto Partners GP LLC, Rialto RSSF GP LLC, Riverwalk at Lago Mar LLC, Rocking Horse Minerals LLC, Rutenberg Homes Inc. (Florida), Rutenberg Homes of Texas Inc., Rye Hill Company LLC, Ryland Homes Nevada Holdings LLC, Ryland Homes Nevada LLC, Ryland Homes of California Inc., S. Florida Construction II LLC, S. Florida Construction III LLC, S. Florida Construction LLC, SC 521 Indian Land Reserve LLC, SC 521 Indian Land Reserve South LLC, SPIC CPCO Inc., SPIC CPDB Inc., SPIC CPRB Inc., SPIC Del Sur LLC, SPIC Dublin LLC, SPIC Mesa LLC, SPIC NC Fremont LLC, SPIC Otay LLC, SPIC Springs LLC, San Felipe Indemnity Co. Ltd., San Lucia LLC, San Simeon Lennar LLC, Schulz Ranch Developers LLC, Seminole/70th LLC, Siena at Old Orchard L.L.C., Sierra Vista Communities LLC, Silver Springs Lennar LLC, South Development LLC, Southbank Holding LLC, Spanish Springs Development LLC, St. Charles Active Adult Community LLC, St. Charles Community LLC, Standard Pacific 1 Inc., Standard Pacific Investment Corp., Standard Pacific of Colorado Inc., Standard Pacific of Florida, Standard Pacific of Florida GP Inc., Standard Pacific of Las Vegas Inc., Standard Pacific of Orange County Inc., Standard Pacific of Tampa GP, Standard Pacific of Tampa GP Inc., Standard Pacific of Tonner Hills LLC, Standard Pacific of Walnut Hills Inc., Standard Pacific of the Carolinas LLC, Stoney Holdings LLC, Storey Lake Club LLC, Storey Park Club LLC, Strategic Holdings Inc., Strategic Technologies LLC, Summerfield Venture L.L.C., SunStreet Energy Group LLC, SunStreet Manager LLC, TCO QVI LLC, TICD Hold Co. LLC, TIH Hold Co. LLC, Talega Associates LLC, Temecula Valley LLC, Terra Division LLC, Terra/Winding Creek LLC, The Baywinds Land Trust, The Bridges Club at Rancho Santa Fe Inc., The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe Sales Company Inc., The LNC Northeast Group Inc., The Oasis Club at LEN-CG South LLC, The Preserve at Coconut Creek LLC, The Vistas Club at LEN-CG South LLC, Titlezoom Company, Treasure Island Holdings LLC, Treasure Island Member LLC, Treviso Holding LLC, Two Lakes Lennar LLC, U.S. Home Corporation, U.S. Home Realty Inc., U.S. Home of Arizona Construction Co., U.S. Insurors Inc., U.S.H. Realty Inc., UAMC Holding Company LLC, UB 2018C14 MOA LLC, USH - Flag LLC, USH Equity Corporation, USH LEE LLC, USH Leasing II LLC, USH Leasing LLC, UST Lennar HW Scala SF Joint Venture, VII Crown Farm Investor LLC, Venetian Lennar LLC, Vineyard Land LLC, Vineyard Point 2009 LLC, Vista Palms Clubhouse LLC, WCI Communities, WCI Communities Inc., WCI Communities LLC, WCI Towers Northeast USA Inc., WCI Westshore LLC, WCP LLC, WIP Lennar OHB LLC, Waterview at Hanover LLC, West Lake Village LLC, West Seattle Project X LLC, West Van Buren L.L.C., Westchase Inc., Westchase Ltd., Westfield Homes USA Inc., White Course Lennar LLC, Wild Plum JV LLC, Willowbrook Investors LLC, Winncrest Natomas LLC, Woodbridge Multifamily Developer I LLC, Wright Farm L.L.C., and YLRichards4Acres 2015 LLC. 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. Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd., an exploration stage resource company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Canada. It holds a 100% interest in the Spanish Mountain gold project, which comprises approximately 50 contiguous mineral claims and 6 placer claims covering an area of approximately 10,000 hectares located in the Cariboo region of central British Columbia. The company was formerly known as Skygold Ventures Ltd. and changed its name to Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd. in January 2010. Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Read More The cars near the site of a gas explosion that killed one person in Durham, North Carolina, on Wednesday look like they've been in accidents. Windows are blown out. Air bags are deployed. Some have dents and dings. The roads are awash in glass, so much so they glisten. The air reeks of dust and pollen. Some 60 emergency responders and cleanup people are on the scene of the blast, which happened hours earlier after someone smelled gas. Authorities said 17 people, including a firefighter, were hospitalized. Six people were critically wounded, said Lee VanVleet of Durham County Emergency Medical Services Emergency responders were evacuating the area when the blast erupted, Durham Fire Chief Robert Zoldos said. The blast occurred just after 10 a.m. in the busy area of Brightleaf Square, where people grab a morning coffee and visit other shops. A contractor boring under the sidewalk hit a 2-inch gas line, said Durham police spokesman Wil Glenn. The search-and-rescue mission has given way to a cleanup operation. Workers were using heavy-duty backpack blowers to clear debris on the ground and firefighters were spraying the remaining hot spots with water. One of the critically injured patients was taken to the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill, VanVleet said. A Dominion Energy employee who responded to the initial gas leak was among the injured, police said. The firefighter's injuries are serious but not life-threatening, Zoldos said. He was in surgery, the chief said. Authorities asked people to avoid the Brightleaf Square area and warned that parts of downtown will be closed, possibly for a couple of days, as they conduct their investigation. Maverick's Smokehouse & Taproom, though closed to the public, brought in employees to help feed the emergency crews. Sounded like a bomb, office worker says A witness described a scene like a war zone, with first responders scrambling to ferry injured people to safety after the blast. "Half the block is destroyed," Jim Rogalski told CNN via text message. "Lots of injuries. Our office across the street was blown out. It was terrifying. Glass and debris everywhere. No one killed in our office but several injuries -- deep cuts, head lacerations." "The ceiling tiles and structures collapse(d)," added Rogalski, whose workplace is across the street from where the blast occurred. "Windows blown out a block away. Our office was filled with glass, dust and debris." A human resources employee told Rogalski and his co-workers that authorities were investigating a gas leak across the street and they should remain inside. About 15 minutes later, they heard what sounded like a bomb, he told CNN. "The first second was stunned silence, then lots of scream(ing) in the building. Several of us shouted, 'Is anyone hurt?'" he recalled. "The injured were quickly taken to an exit." Another person who works nearby said firefighters entered his building and told employees that workers had hit a gas line, and "we heard the big explosion right after they told us they may evacuate us." The blast shook the structure and blew out its windows, said the witness, who declined to give his name. "It sounded like the building was going to collapse, and we left immediately," he said. Police arrived quickly, within about a minute, Rogalski said, and he went outside to find throngs of people and paramedics trying to help the injured. Firefighters soon arrived and pushed everyone back about four blocks in case of another explosion, he said. "Paramedics pulled writhing people on the street to safety," he said, adding that he saw bystanders using their own shirts to treat injuries. The Durham School of the Arts is nearby and reported no injuries but said it was sending students home early. Students without transportation will be taken to the Brogden Middle School auditorium to wait for their parents, the school said. The building where the blast occurred is a former Studebaker dealership that now appears to host other businesses, including a coffee shop and a mental health clinic. Aerial video showed the two-story building missing its roof and back wall, the inside filled with charred debris. Four other buildings were damaged, officials said. The city observed the 150th anniversary of its founding on Wednesday. Materials that can be purchased legally, right over the counter, can be used to make a bomb. Ravens Challenge Program Manager John Simpson says thats just one of the many different types of bombs technicians have to know how to deal with before dealing with a real threat. "We run every kind of scenario that you can imagine. From the most basic homemade explosive or pipe bomb type scenario, all the way to electronic componentry. A little bit more sophisticated precision aim type training. We cover the entire spectrum." Is the threat bombings increasing in the US? The Assistant Director of the New York State Preparedness Training Center explained why these teams are training to cover the entire spectrum of explosive devices. "Its very, very easy to get these materials and equipment to make these devices. Its not difficult. So I dont know if its increasing, but its not going away." Thats whats on the minds of Bomb Technicians like David Bebout. "Bomb Technicians of course think about it each and every day. Ive been doing this job for 20 plus years. Every time you go down range is youre thinking about the job that youve been trained to do." In addition to having to deem a bomb safe, bomb technicians have to wear a suit, that weighs about 80 pounds, and if you think thats a lot of weight on their shoulders, theres one part of the country that deals with around 100 real explosive devices every year. Bob Stallman tells us "Every call has to be considered a real bomb call, so yeah if they had 100 true devices, can you imagine how many they had that werent, and every one has to be treated exactly the same way." Monroe County Sheriffs Bomb Technician Christopher Schillaci tells us thats why this training is so important, and when it comes to dealing with explosive devices "Really its all business. I mean you got to put all your emotions and things like that aside to get the job done and then once its over you can think about it. I probably wont think about 100 of the things that Ive done until Im lying in bed when Im 90 years old wondering, did that really happen?" Its because of this training we might all be able to make it to 90 years old. Congressman Anthony Brindisi was part of the passing of an amendment to help expand broadband internet in rural areas. Brindisi's amendment directs the government accountability office to issue a report about the ways in, which the United States government can promote high-speed broadband infrastructure, especially in rural areas. The free market is the cornerstone of Americas economy, and this bill would ensure that free market competition is protected on the internet. However, for many Upstate New Yorkers, basic internet access remains out of reach. Internet access is essential in todays economy, and we need to do more to connect rural areas to high-speed broadband, said Brindisi on the House floor. The House of Representatives passed the save the Internet Act of 2019, which aims to keep the internet open and free and restore net neutrality protections. POLAND, N.Y. -- Firefighters rushed to the scene of a trailer fire in Poland Thursday afternoon. It appears crews were able to keep the mobile home on Grant Road from burning to the ground. However, there is enough damage to make the home unlivable. Firefighters on scene believe the fire started in the furnace area of the home. The homeowners were able to get out safely. After seeing NewsChannel 2's report on Camden's issue of used drug syringes popping up all over the village, the head of ACR Health's syringe exchange program went to Camden, to offer help. Roberto Gonzalez, of ACR Health, says Camden has been on the agency's radar for about a year, in terms of opioid activity. Gonzalez says once the snow melts, it's common for syringes to start surfacing in usage areas. He says ACR Health will dispatch teams to Camden to assist with removal and proper disposal, but also to offer outreach, right on the street, if necessary, to anyone affected by addiction. Camden Police Officer Fred Robenski, who previously spent years working in narcotics at the Rome Police Department, welcomes the partnership. He says used syringes have been found everywhere from outside the library, to convenience store bathrooms and the end of people's driveways. Two weeks ago, one of two fatal overdoses in Oneida County, was in Camden. Police entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London Thursday morning, arresting Julian Assange and bringing the Wikileaks founder's seven-year stint there to a dramatic close. Metropolitan Police said in a statement that he was "further arrested" on his arrival at a London police station on behalf of United States authorities, who have issued an extradition warrant. Officers made the move after Ecuador withdrew Assange's asylum and invited authorities into the embassy, citing the Australian's bad behavior. Assange was initally detained for "failing to surrender to the court" over a warrant issued in 2012 and was in custody at a central London police station, police said. He will appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court in London as soon as is possible, police added. The whistleblower has been holed up at the embassy, yards from the Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, since 2012, when he was granted asylum as part of a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was facing allegations of sexual assault. The Swedish case has since been dropped, but Assange feared US extradition due to his work with WikiLeaks and remained in the embassy. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno said in a video statement Thursday that his country withdrew Assange's asylum due to his "discourteous and aggressive behaviour," "the hostile and threatening declarations of his allied organisation against Ecuador" and "the transgression of international treaties." Assange "violated the norm of not intervening in internal affairs of other states," Moreno said. "The most recent incident occurred in January 2019, when Wikileaks leaked Vatican documents. Key members of that organisation visited Mr Assange before and after such illegal acts," he added. In July 2016, WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails from Democratic National Committee staffers that appeared to show the committee favoring presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the US presidential primary. Assange then told CNN's Anderson Cooper that the email release was timed to coincide with the start of the Democratic National Convention. A US court filing in November 2018 inadvertently revealed US government efforts to criminally charge Assange. Alan Duncan, the British Foreign Office's Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, thanked Ecuador for lifting Assange's asylum. "It is absolutely right that Assange will face justice in the proper way in the UK. It is for the courts to decide what happens next," Duncan said in a statement. "We are very grateful to the Government of Ecuador under President Moreno for the action they have taken," the statement continued. "Today's events follow extensive dialogue between our two countries." On April 4, WikiLeaks tweeted from its verified account, "BREAKING: A high level source within the Ecuadorian state has told @WikiLeaks that Julian Assange will be expelled within "hours to days" using the #INAPapers offshore scandal as a pretext--and that it already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest." In a statement released Friday, Assange's own legal team said that expelling him from the embassy would "violate international refugee law." "It will be a sad day for democracy if the UK and Ecuadorean governments are willing to act as accomplices to the Trump administration's determination to prosecute a publisher for publishing truthful information," the statement read. The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry denied the rumors in a statement, calling them "fake news" and adding that the allegation of a deal with the UK "misrepresents reality." CNN's Milena Veselinovic, Erin McLaughlin and Hadas Gold contributed to this report. Here comes the warm front that is about to bring the warmest day of 2019 so far! Strong winds from the south to south-southwest will also follow the warm front. After howling east winds last night, howling southerly winds gusting 35-45 mph will occur this afternoon & evening. Wind Advisory is up for a good chunk of the viewing area. Major spring storm continues in the Plains & Upper Midwest with historic blizzard. Widespread high winds are also occurring with the storm. Note the wildfire weather warning (Red Flag Warning) in Missouri. This is important to us because this is dry air that is undercutting this system's warm sector. Despite good dynamics & shear, the lack of deep moisture & thus more unstable air, will keep our severe threat MARGINAL (to SLIGHT in the western fringe). Isolated severe gusts are the main threat & perhaps some small hail. Timing is 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Best potential of severe is Illinois when the t'storms develop at peak heating. Also, front will become increasingly anafrontal overnight (wind at 10,000' & surface become parallel to each other) causing the line to weaken as it exits our area & a considerable amount of rainfall & some isolated thunder to occur behind the front. The trend is to have the band of heaviest rainfall set up from part of Newton & far western Benton counties, through eastern Illinois with lesser amounts elsewhere. Any rainfall in our area should end Friday morning. Dry slot should bring a lot of sunshine tomorrow with 50s to lower 60s & southwest winds gusting to 35 mph after morning lows in the 40s to around 50. For the Challenge 5K at Purdue Saturday, dress warmly. It will be around 35 at 7-8 a.m. & the west wind, after being light initially, will crank up to 10-15 mph by 8 p.m., leading to wind chills in the upper 20s. By 11 a.m. west winds at 10-20 mph will continue to add a chill. Temperatures will be up to around 49, however. The afternoon should improve as the wind decreases to 5-10 mph & temperatures rise to around 57. Mid & high clouds will be on the increase after a good deal of sun initially. Widespread rainfall is likely Sunday morning before it become more periodic & showery midday onward. Winds will be howling from the east to northeast in the morning to 40 mph with the rain. Combine this with temperatures in the 30s & 40s & it make for a nasty start to Sunday. Winds will subside some midday-afternoon, then crank back up in the evening & be northerly with gusts to 40 mph. Highs Sunday will only be in the 40s (some 50s southeast) & north & northwest of our area, accumulating snowfall from this system may occur. Temperatures may fall into the 30s in the evening, leading to the potential of brief wet snow in Newton, Jasper & Pulaski counties. If there would be any small amount of accumulation it would be very light & on an elevated surface like a car top, wind shield, roof top, tree, etc. This storm system looks to bring a substantial severe weather outbreak to the southern U.S. from eastern Texas to Georgia. It is not out of the question that some severe risk gets as far north as southern Indiana & eastern Indiana south of the warm front & east of the cold front. This would tend to be an area of some MARGINAL RISK that would occur separate from the southern U.S. outbreak. This would be toward the colder air aloft of the upper low with disturbance pivoting around the system's center acting as a trigger. Note how much warmer it will be in that zone (second image below). Lows Monday night should drop 32-37 with wind gradually subsiding & slow clearing taking place northwest to southeast over the viewing area. After 50s Monday, warm front will skyrocket northward Monday night to Tuesday, putting the kabosh on any risk of frost & freezing for Monday night. Cloud band with a few showers will accompany this warm front. This will push highs Tuesday to 68-75 for the area with a strong southwest wind developing. In our northern counties, it may take until late afternoon to finally get into the good warmth. Wednesday looks warm. Thursday looks warm. Highs look to run in the 70s with lows in the 50s & 60s. Severe weather risk will return next Thursday, with some potential risk as early as Wednesday night-Thursday morning, then a better risk in the afternoon & evening. We will monitor. The worst of the severe weather this that system looks to set up Texas & Oklahoma to Arkansas, southern Missouri, to Louisiana & Mississippi. It could be a large significant outbreak. It appears that we would get those leftovers late Wednesday night-Thursday morning with some risk, then new t'storms form here with the surface low & cold front Thursday PM. That said, the m-o of this forecast late April to early May is warm with temperatures averaging above normal. I have no doubt that there will likely be a brief, random cool snap with some patchy frost. That is climatologically favorable, but we will also have temperatures as high as the 80s & any chill should be brief. Good news for farmers. Precipitation is trending below normal for late April-early May overall. There will be some storms & severe risk at times, but there is not sign of a consistent, wetter pattern. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The Lafayette Police Department is searching for a group of people they say are passing counterfeit bills in the city. Police are asking businesses to be on alert. Five similar cases have been investigated since Tuesday, according to Lt. Matt Gard. Police said fake $100 bills were passed Tuesday at the Walmart on the east side and the Menards on Creasy Lane. Officers were then called to three more locations Wednesday. A fake $100 was used to make purchases at the Hobby Lobby on Creasy Lane and at the same Menards from the day before. Gard said a fake $10 was then used at the McDonalds on South Street. Police believe all of these transactions were related. Gard said the same four people, two men and two women, are seen coming and going on surveillance video. The men were described as thin. No other descriptions, such as clothes or hair, were available. Gard said there are several ways to tell if a bill is counterfeit. He said to hold the bill up to the light and see if the watermark face matches the face on the bill. If you see Abraham Lincoln's face on a 100 dollar bill, he said it's likely fake. You can also lick your finger and rub it on the bill to see if the ink smears. Gard also said to check the microfiber thread. It will say "USA 50" or "USA 100," depending on the bill. Call Lafayette police with any information at (765) 807-1200. Egyptian security forces have killed 11 suspected terrorists in a shootout in North Sinai governorate, the interior ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The suspects were members of a terrorist cell in the governorate's capital of El-Arish and were planning to carry out attacks on police and army forces in a number of vital areas, the statement said. The shootout broke out as security forces conducted a raid on the suspects' hideout. On Tuesday, seven people, including four policemen, were killed when a suicide bomber targeted police near a market in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid. Search Keywords: Short link: Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Four distinguished members of the law enforcement community were honored during a ceremony Wednesday, including officer Michael Martinsen, a five-year veteran of the Woonsocket Police Department. The awards were given during the annual Ceremony for National Crime Victims Rights Week and held at Veterans Memorial Park in Providence. Attorney General Peter Neronha, left, presented the award to Martinsen as Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements, Colonel James Manni, Superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police; General Treasurer Seth Magaziner and Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare, from left, take part. Earthquakes are one of the most devastating of all natural disasters. Earthquakes are very difficult to predict as events that lead to these disasters happen deep down in the earth. Tectonic plate movements are the primary cause of earthquakes. Volcanic eruptions can also trigger earthquakes but are often, in turn, caused by tectonic activity. Not every country in the world is susceptible to earthquakes. The world's most earthquake-prone countries include China, Indonesia, Iran, and Turkey. 1. China China experienced 157 earthquakes from 1900 to 2016, the highest number of earthquakes of any country. Most of these earthquakes happened in the southwest region of the country, where the terrain is highly mountainous. Luckily for China, some of the least populous provinces, namely Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Yunnan, are located in this region. The rugged terrain and harsh climate of this region are not conducive to support high populations. However, due to the poor transportation infrastructure and remote mountainous topography of the southwest, rescue and recovery after an earthquake become an extremely challenging task. 2. Indonesia With 113 earthquakes of significant magnitude between 1900 and 2016, Indonesia ranks as the worlds second most earthquake-prone country. The primary reason for the high frequency of earthquakes in Indonesia is its location on the Ring of Fire. The majority of the worlds earthquakes happen in the Ring of Fire, which encompasses a shoe-shaped area of about 40,000 square km. The movement of tectonic plates in the area, as well as submarine or surface volcanic eruptions, have triggered many earthquakes that have affected Indonesia over the centuries. 3. Iran Iran, a country in the Middle East, is located in an area of high seismic activity. It is the third most earthquake country in the world and has experienced at least 106 earthquakes from 1900 to 2016. The country exists where the Eurasian and Arabian tectonic plates meet. The Zagros Mountains, one of the worlds youngest mountain range, developed in the area due to the subduction of the Arabian place under the Iranian plate, the latter being a part of the larger Eurasian plate. Due to the location of Iran at a collision zone of the different plates, earthquakes in the country are inevitable. What is more, the seismic zone encompasses most of the country with an area that is 1600 kilometers long and 400 kilometers wide. Instead of a single sharp plate boundary, Iran has numerous fracture zones that makes it more susceptible to catastrophic earthquakes. 4. Turkey Like other countries in the list, Turkey also sits atop one of the worlds most seismically active spots, the plate boundary between the Eurasian and Arabian plates. The Arabian plate is inching northwards towards the relatively stable Eurasian Plate. Turkey is located at the boundary of impact between these plates. The movement of the Arabian Plate, in turn, is triggered by the formation and spread of new crust along the mid-sea ridges of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The spreading of this new crust provides the northward push to the Arabian plate. The pressure from the Arabian plate has already generated two faults in the country that start from a common point and then part ways as the Northern Anatolian Fault and the Eastern Anatolian Fault. Locations along these faults are highly susceptible to earthquakes. 5. Japan Like Indonesia, Japan is near the Pacific Ring of Fire which makes it highly vulnerable to catastrophic earthquakes. The movement and collisions of the continental and oceanic plates in and around Japan are responsible for these disasters. Japan is on the joint of four different tectonic plates. These are the North America plate, Pacific plate, Philippine plate, and the Eurasian plate. The movement and subduction of the Philippine and Pacific plates under the two other plates cause earthquakes. 6. Peru Peru is at the interface between the South American and Nazca plates. The movement of the former over the latter at a rate of 77 mm per year is triggering the earthquakes due to thrust faulting at the plate interface. Volcanism in the highlands of Peru and the formation of the PeruChile Trench and the Andes Mountains are also a result of plate tectonics due to the movement of these plates. 7. United States Parts of the west coast of the United States are in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Plate tectonics is also active in the region. The dynamic boundary of the Pacific and North American plates is responsible for many earthquakes in the country, especially in Alaska and California. In the latter, the San Andreas Fault runs a long distance making the state highly prone to disasters. 8. Italy In Italy, the southern part of the country is most susceptible to earthquakes as the Eurasian and African plates collide in this region. Most of Italys most dangerous volcanoes like Etna, Vesuvius, and Stromboli are in this region. Other Countries That Are Highly Prone To Earthquakes Afghanistan and India are also highly prone to earthquakes due to the action of plate tectonics. The Indian plate is constantly moving northwards and ramming into the Eurasian plate, which is the main cause of earthquakes in the Indian subcontinent. Greece and Mexico are also vulnerable to earthquake events. Peru is a state in western South America. It prides itself for being home to the famous Amazon forest and the Andes Mountains. The capital city of Peru is Lima. The country is among the worlds fastest-growing economies. The free trade agreement between Peru and the USA that dates back to 2006 has resulted in further economic growth in the country. Currently, the total GDP of Peru is $458.389 billion with its economy driven by industries such as mining, manufacturing, fishing, and tourism. The Biggest Industries In Peru The fast rate of economic growth in Peru has attracted both private and foreign investments in the countrys industries. Mining Industry Peru is among the global leaders in the production of lead, copper, gold, and zinc which are exported by the country in large quantities. The mineral-rich areas in Peru are within the Andes where mining has taken place for thousands of years. In 2000, mineral resources made up about 50% of Perus exports. Gold is the most significant mining resource in the country. Two gold mines, Yanacocha and Pierina, are the most significant sources of Peru gold. They also generate the highest revenue compared to the other gold reserves in Peru. The country has millions of ounces in gold and copper reserves. Silver mining in Peru is as old as Pre-Columbian societies. One challenge that the mining industry faces is the fluctuations in the market prices which lead to a decrease in revenues from the sector. Fishing Industry The fishing industry in Peru provides 10% of the worlds fish consumption. Until 1994, the sector was government-owned. Afterward, the Peru government relinquished its ownership in the fishing industry to the private sector. Fishing increased in Peru due to two reasons: whaling in the 19th century and demand for bird dung (a byproduct of fish found in the small islands off the coast). In 2000, the country caught 10 billion tons of fish and exported fish products worth US$ 1 billion. However, Perus fish meal exports to Europe dropped by 41% in 2001 due to a ban by the European Union nations in 2001 on animal products sold to Europe. A significant challenge for the fishing industry is the periodic El Nino encounters. During the years that Peru experiences El Ninos, the fishing industry contributes to only 1% of the countrys economy. The bulk of fish caught are anchovies which are used to make fish meals and products. Tourism Industry Tourism is also a significant industry in Peru. From the 1990s, both the government and the private sector have been making efforts to boost this industry. As a result, revenue from the sector increased from $90,000 in the 1990s to about US$1,000,000 in 2001. Approximately US$ 300 million was spent to construct new hotels from 2000-2005. The developments in the tourism industry led to the creation of jobs for about one million Peruvians. The two focus areas for tourism has been ecotourism and heritage tourism. Ecotourism relates to the conservation of the natural environments including the wildlife and unique species of plants as well as animals. On the other hand, heritage tourism refers to attraction sites that point to the history of a nation and the culture of its people. Examples of tourist attractions in Peru include the Andes Mountains, Amazon rain forest, Colca Canyon, and Machu Picchu. The famous Inca city known as Machu Picchu attracts many tourists to Peru. Additionally, the Amazon rain forest attracts many ecotourists. The challenges faced by the tourism sector in Peru is the pressure on the archeological sites and rainforests leading to the destruction of the tourist sites. Manufacturing Industry The manufacturing contributes 20% of the countrys GDP. In the past, Peru would export most of its raw materials. However, today, the raw materials are processed to add value before being transported. An example of an industry that engages in value addition is the textile industry which is responsible for exporting clothes to Europe and the US. In 2000, the textiles sector exported clothes worth US$ 700 million to the US and Europe making it the most promising industry within the industry. Peru signed an agreement with the European Union which resulted in duty-free exports to its member states. The primary objective of the pact was to help curb the drug trade. Afghanistan is situated in the middle of south-central Asia. It lies along vital trade routes that connect eastern and southern Asia to the Middle East and Europe. Kabul is the nations capital and the largest city. The country is entirely landlocked, and the nearest water body is the Arabian Sea which is some 300 miles away. The nations isolation, as well as its volatile political history, means that it is among the most inadequately surveyed countries in the world. The nation is bordered to the north by Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, to the west by Iran, and to the south and east by Pakistan (with parts of Kashmir which is claimed by India but governed by Pakistan). China also borders the country to the northeast. Among the most important features in the country is the Hindu Kush, a mountain range that helps create three distinct geographical regions namely the southwestern plateau, the central highlands, and the northern plains. About 100 miles to the north of Kabul the mountain range spread out and continues westward as many ranges such as the Sefid Kuh, Baba, Bayan, and others. Other important ranges include the Hesar Mountains, Siah Kuh and, and Khakbad. Close to the border with Pakistan, some mountain ranges isolate the country interior from the winds carrying moisture from the Indian Ocean thereby contributing to the dry climate. Climate Afghanistan sees hot summers and extremely cold winters which are typical in a semiarid steppe climate; however, there are many regional variations. The mountain regions in the northeastern part of the country experience a subarctic climate that has dry and cold winters. The mountain region close to the border with Pakistan is affected by the Indian Monsoon which usually comes in July and ends in September bringing rain and maritime tropical air masses carrying humidity. During summer, intense winds frequently blow in the southwest. The elevation influences a further variation on conditions. The climatic conditions and weather in early spring are significantly influenced by cold air masses which come from the north and the northwest. Both air masses lead to severe cold and snowfall in the highland areas. Temperatures The temperatures in the country vary widely. In the Southwestern Plateau, daytime temperatures can reach highs of over 95 degrees Fahrenheit. In areas such as the Jalalabad which is among the hottest areas in the country, temperatures in July can go as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit. In January, high mountain areas may experience a drop in temperatures to 5 degrees Fahrenheit or below. Kabul, which is at an elevation of 5,900 feet above sea level, experiences temperatures as low as -24 degrees Fahrenheit. Precipitation The annual mean precipitation in mountainous regions increases from east to west. The average precipitation in areas which receive the southeastern monsoon area is about 16 inches. Areas that have recorded precipitation extremes include the Salang Pass of the Hindu Kush which experienced 53 inches of annual precipitation. Arid regions such as Farah to the west receive an average of 3 inches of precipitation per year. The months of December to April experience the most precipitation. In the Highlands, the months of December to March have snowfall while intermittent rain is experienced in lowlands in the months between December and May. Summers are dry and hot in the majority of places apart from the monsoon region. Kabul Kabul is the country largest and the capital city. The winter in Kabul is cold with average January temperatures of 30 degrees Fahrenheit and freezing nights. Snowfall is quite frequent and can at times be heavy. The summers in the city are hot and at times scorching during the day and cool during the nights. Precipitation is relatively low with an average of 12 inches in a year. Spring is the rainiest season while summers rarely rain. The months of January to April receive the highest rainfall. Kandahar Kandahar is the second largest city in the country and is situated in the southeast close to the desert at 3,300 feet above sea level.The daily average temperatures are 45.5 degrees Fahrenheit in January and 88.5 degrees Fahrenheit in July. The winter is mild but the nights are cold with possible frost. During summer it is usually sunny and scorching hot. The rainfall in the area is inadequate since it does not reach 8 inches per year. Herat Herat is the third largest city in the country situated to the western part of the country and it is located in an elevation of about 2,950 feet above sea level in the Hari River Vally. The temperatures during winter are cold but just above freezing point. Snow and intense frosts are sometimes experienced. The summers are sunny and hot and are characterized by intense winds that blow from the north. The precipitation is low at 9.5 inches per year. The Best Time to Visit Afghanistan Those who want to visit the country are advised to do it during spring and autumn to avoid the cold winter and the summer heat. The months of April and October or March and November in the southern deserts are recommended. Those months can, however, experience hot days and cold nights. The autumn season is also drier and less windy, making it the ideal time to visit. Mountainous Regions above 6,500 feet can be visited during summer because the rest of the year is typically cold. The Mountainous regions to the far eastern part of the country experience summers which are affected by offshoots of the Monsoon winds. The Progressive Era which spanned from the 1890s to early 1920s in the United States was marked by political reforms and widespread social activities with the objective of eliminating the problems that resulted from industrialization, migration, and urbanization. It was in this spirit of reforms that influential journalist used the platform to attack corrupt leaders and reveal injustices in the society. This group of journalists who were collectively referred to as muckrakers. Work of Muckrakers These journalists had a large audience in certain popular magazines including The Cosmopolitan Magazine and McClures Magazine. The muckrakers worked to expose corporate monopolies and reveal wrongdoings such as child labor, unsafe working conditions, prostitution, and urban poverty. The work of muckrakers led to the passage of key legislation that safeguards and protects workers and consumers. Today, investigative journalists in the United States are referred to as muckrakers. Background of Muckraking Although the literature of reforms had appeared before the Progressive Era, the king of journalism that would become muckraking started around the 1900s. Magazines such as McClures Magazine and Colliers Weekly were already in circulation by then. The January 1903 issue of McClures Magazine is credited for setting off the muckraking journalism. However, the term muckraker was only coined later. In 1905, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, a novel that fictionalized the state of contamination and corruption in Chicagos meatpacking industry. In his novel, Sinclair raised awareness on the exploitation and poor conditions workers were subjected to. The novels description of such conditions and meat contamination lead to a public outcry and demand for federal regulations over food and drug industries. As a result, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were passed in 1906. Soon, personal journalism evolved into investigative journalism with magazines becoming the leading outlets for this type of journalism. Origin of the Term When President Theodore Roosevelt took over the presidency in 1901, he began managing the press corp. To achieve this, he promoted his press secretary to cabinet status and held press conferences at the White House. However, investigative journalists proved to be more difficult to manage than the objective ones. The president used his press conferences effectively to promote his Square Deal, a series of domestic policies aimed at helping middle-class citizens. During one of his speeches in April 1906, President Roosevelt was quoted as using the phrases muck rakes and raking the muck in reference to the investigative journalists who highlighted unpleasant muck of corruption in businesses and governments. The name muckrakers soon became popular and eventually came to be used as a reference to investigative journalists. Famous Muckrakers Some of the most famous muckrakers of the Progressive Era were women. Perhaps the best known female muckraker is Ida Tarbell who was one of the main contributors to McClures Magazine in 1902. She exposed Standard Oil tycoon John Rockefeller in her book The History of Standard Oil as a corrupt and greedy man. Others muckrakers included Lincoln Steffens who authored The Shame of Minneapolis, Julius Chambers who mainly wrote about psychiatric abuse, Ray Stannard Baker who authored The Right to Work, and Josiah Flynt, Jack London and Alfred Henry Lewis who contributed for The Cosmopolitan Magazine. Australias trade unions staged a series of rallies yesterday as part of their Change the Rules campaign to promote the election of a yet another Labor government that will implement the demands of big business. The largest demonstration was in Melbourne, where tens of thousands of workers rallied, though attendance was notably lower than previous Change the Rules events in that city. Smaller rallies were held in fourteen other state capitals and regional centres. The unions made no attempt to publicise or build the majority of these events, including a protest in Sydney that was only attended by about 100 people. This underscores the fear of the union bureaucracy that it could rapidly lose control of any mass gathering of workers. Part of the Melbourne rally The union campaign has sought to divert deeply felt anger within the working classover social inequality, corporate tax evasion, low wages and insecure working conditionsbehind the Labor Party. Despite the unions determined efforts, however, there is no enthusiasm among workers for the election of the Labor Party and its leader Bill Shorten. Yesterdays rallies were scheduled to coincide with the beginning of the federal election campaign. Union bureaucrats in Melbourne led chants promoting the Labor Party, including What do we want? An election. When do we want it? Now. And, The Liberal Party thinks were fools. Vote them out and change the rules. The march from the Trades Hall building to the Victorian state parliament was headed by Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) President Michele ONeil, state Premier Daniel Andrews and federal Labor parliamentarian Peter Khalila former senior official in the illegal American occupation regime in Iraq. The Labor premier heads a government that has privatised public assets, cut corporate taxes, and starved the public health and education systems of the necessary funding (see: Victorian Labor government makes election pitch to big business). He has implemented this anti-working class agenda while working closely with the trade union bureaucracy. Union leaders hailed Andrews participation in the Change the Rules campaign, with Electrical Trades Union state secretary Troy Gray telling the rally that Andrews was the greatest premier. Victorian Trades Hall secretary Luke Hilakari declared: We are one big family. Its you, its all the Labor Party people. Weve got some Greens marching with us too. In her speech, Michele ONeil declared: To change the rules we must change the government and throw out [Liberal-National Prime Minister] Scott Morrison and his rotten, mean government... Will you do everything you can between now and the election to see them on their way? The event underscored the political fraud of the entire Change the Rules campaign, just like the ACTUs 200607 Your Rights at Work campaign that channeled workers behind Labor. After the 2007 federal election, the union bureaucracy worked with Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and wrote the very anti-strike rules that they now claim to oppose. Like their counterparts throughout the world, the trade unions in Australia have worked to impose corporate interests at the expense of the working class by enforcing mass layoffs, corporate productivity drives, workplace concessions and real wage cuts. Between 1983 and 1996, the unions worked with the Hawke-Keating governments to implement sweeping pro-business, free market restructuring measures. Now, amid an unprecedented crisis of global capitalism, the unions are again offering their services, working with governments and the major corporations to implement the next wave of attacks on the working class. Despite the unions efforts at yesterdays rallies to whip up excitement for a Labor government, few workers believe that Shorten and his colleagues will act in the interests of workers. Max, a railway worker, told World Socialist Web Site reporters: Everything they say you cannot believeLabor and Liberal are much of a muchness. I reckon they are as bad as each other. The private health system is out of reach of most people. Taxes are paid by everyone, but as you get older the prices for insurance keep going up. Sam Sam added: Labor is trying to sub jobs out [through privatisation]. There is a decline in safety and regulation. Politics is all business as far as I can see. The union bureaucracys ambition to modify the industrial relations rules is about extending its influence and material interests. There is no demand that the anti-democratic prohibitions of workers right to strike be eliminated. Instead, the ACTU wants to increase its ability to work with corporations through the re-establishment of industry-wide agreements. ACTU secretary Sally McManus has cited Germany as the model to be emulated, with union bureaucrats sitting on company and state boards alongside government employers. Industry-wide bargaining, she has explained, would allow business owners and unions to come together to improve productivity. Workers around the world have begun to take up a fight against the assault on their jobs, wages and conditions not through the trade unions but in defiance of them. American teachers, autoworkers in the US and Europe, public sector and other workers in Algeria and Sudan, and factory workers in Mexico have in recent months launched strikes and protests outside the trade union straitjacket. Workers in Australia needs to turn to this emerging movement of the international working class, and form rank-and-file committees in every workplace to take forward a fight for jobs, wages and conditions. This is above all a political struggle, requiring a break with the Labor Party and the Greens, and the building of the Socialist Equality Party as the new mass party of the working class. The author recommends: The political issues posed by the Australian Council of Trade Unions Change the Rules campaign [22 October 2018] The United Conservative Party (UCP) enjoys a strong lead in the opinion polls in the run-up to Albertas April 16 provincial election, and appears all but certain to unseat Premier Rachel Notley and her New Democratic Party (NDP) after just one term in office. The UCP was formed in 2017 through the merger of the far-right, socially and fiscally conservative Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservatives, Albertas traditional party of government. It advocates ruthless austerity and massive corporate tax cuts, and promotes Alberta First regionalism and anti-Quebec chauvinism. Led by Jason Kenney, one of the top ministers in Stephen Harpers decade-long federal Conservative government, the UCP is a close ally of the federal Conservative Party and has links to anti-immigrant and other ultra-right forces, including Calgary-based Rebel Media. Rattled by the post-2013 collapse of Albertas oil boom, big business is turning to Kenney and his UCP to mount a frontal offensive against the working class, through massive social-spending cuts, the gutting of environmental and labour standards, and corporate tax cuts. The push for a UCP government in the countrys fourth most populous province is part of a more general lurch right by the Canadian bourgeoisie. Under Harper and now Trudeau, Canadian imperialism has pursued an ever more aggressive role on the world stage, in close alliance with Washington. Over the past nine months, the corporate elite has propelled to power hard-right, anti-immigrant governments in Ontario, under Doug Ford, and in Quebec, under Francois Legault. In answer to this sharp shift right, which parallels developments in the US, Europe and around the world, the working class must constitute itself as an independent political force and advance its own, socialist, solution to the capitalist crisis. This requires implacable opposition to the purportedly progressive or left sections of the political establishment. For decades, whenever they have held office, social-democratic and liberal parties have invariably pursued pro-austerity, pro-war policies and otherwise attacked the working class. It is this that has opened door for right-wing demagogues like Trump, Ford, and now Kenney to hypocritically and cynically make appeals to the grievances and frustrations of working people. Unexpectedly swept to power in May 2015 on a wave of popular anger over inadequate public services, a lack of affordable housing, and rampant social inequality, Albertas trade-union backed NDP government has faithfully served the interests of Big Oil and corporate Alberta. It has imposed restraint on the provinces overburdened health and education systems and pay freezes on public sector workers. While imposing austerity on working people, it shelved plans to increase the royalties paid by oil and natural gas producers and otherwise maintained the so-called Alberta low-tax advantage. And on the national stage, Notley and her NDP have functioned as close allies of the big-business Trudeau Liberal government, including pushing for the building of pipelines to tidewater. None of this, however, has stopped Kenney from denouncing Notley and her NDP for purportedly failing to champion Alberta and its oil industry. Kenneys party is mounting an Alberta First regionalist campaign, based on the claim that Alberta is being short-changed under current federal-provincial arrangements, even as the development of its oil sector is being thwarted by Ottawa and other provinces. This campaign includes an open appeal to Anglo-chauvinism. Kenney and his supporters routinely denounce the Trudeau Liberal government for its supposed favouritism to Quebec, and they accuse Quebec itself of strangling Albertas economy, by opposing an oil pipeline to the countrys East Coast, even as it takes Albertas moneya reference to Quebec being the largest recipient of federal equalization payments. Kenney is vowing to use all the legal and fiscal means at the Alberta governments disposal to overcome both popular and governmental opposition to new pipelines, including holding a referendum to demand radical changes to the equalization program. A UCP government is also committed to pressing for changes in how public health care is funded, effectively eliminating any federal government role. Both the downsizing of equalization and the replacement of federal funding for Medicare by increased provincial tax room are longstanding demands of the most rapacious sections of the ruling class. They want to shatter what remains of minimum national standards for health care and other public services, with the aim of transferring more wealth to the most privileged sections of society and promoting wholesale privatization. Neo-conservatives have long advocated such a social counter-revolution. If their reactionary policy prescriptions are now on the verge of becoming Alberta government policy, it is because the provinces ruling elite is angered and frustrated at the thwarting of its ambitions. As a result of the fall in world-oil prices and the shale-oil driven emergence of the US as the worlds biggest petroleum producer, investment in the high-cost Alberta tar sands has collapsed. Determined to make good its losses, Albertas corporate elite is intent on squeezing the working class and driving a harder bargain with its rivals and partners in the Canadian bourgeoisie. Kenney and his UCP articulate this drive to increase the profits and wealth of the ruling elite in almost unvarnished fashion. Nevertheless, they have been able to attract support from financially pressed current and laid-off energy and construction industry workers, as well as contractors, small businessman and other middle-class elements. This is due above all to the NDPs rotten record. Since 2014, Albertas energy sector has been battered, with tens of thousands of relatively well-paid oil workers losing their jobs, forced to accept temporary work, or compelled to accept massive wage cuts. Consumer debt levels are at a record high, and the housing market has collapsed with foreclosed houses remaining unsold for years. While NDP leader Rachel Notley professed prior to becoming premier that her party would stand up for working people in Alberta, make corporations pay more taxes, and oppose the development of oil pipelines due to environmental concerns, the reality has been very different. The NDP government has done nothing to assist workers hit hard by the crisis, while endeavouring to ensure that Big Oil enjoys the best conditions possible for doing business. On coming to power in 2015, Notleys government adopted the outgoing Progressive Conservative (PC) governments budget, and immediately froze public sector pay and imposed a hiring freeze. In terms of Notleys support for the big energy companies, right-wing Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid once observed, Premier Rachel Notley didnt just extend an olive branch to oil and gas leaders...she brought the whole tree and shook it, raining down petals of praise and friendship. In shilling for Big Oil, Notley, it should be noted, has not shied away from playing the Alberta regional card. So right-wing has been the Notley government that she recently won praise from Danielle Smith, who headed the far-right Wildrose Party when it was Albertas Official Opposition. Smith compared Notley to former PC Premier Peter Lougheed, who in 1971 founded the PCs 44-year-long provincial governing dynasty. If you think Lougheed was Albertas best Premier, wrote Smith in the Herald, I bet you are voting for Notley. That being said, big business is overwhelmingly behind Kenney, licking its chops at the prospect of launching an all-out onslaught on the public services and social programs on which millions of Albertans rely. The UCP 2018 policy declaration lays out plans to make Alberta the lowest tax jurisdiction in Canada by reducing taxes for large corporations; to eliminate funding for abortion services and privatize health care; to balance the budget in its first term through social spending cuts; to construct hospitals and schools using the P3 (public-private partnership) model; to ensure equal funding for public and private schools and encourage the expansion of charter schools; and to roll back the C$15 minimum wage to C$12.20 per hour. To enforce its rabidly anti-working class program, the UCP is cultivating ties with right-wing extremist and openly fascistic forces. Several UCP meetings have been attended by members of the neo-fascist Soldiers of Odin, which regularly organizes violent anti-immigrant protests. Star UCP candidate and former Harper government official Caylan Ford was forced to resign after online comments were publicized in which she defended the neo-Nazi demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. That right-wing populist forces are profiting from the social and economic crisis underscores the urgency of the working class intervening independently into political events with its own program. Workers in Alberta seeking a political alternative to the provinces right-wing political establishment must turn to their class brothers and sisters across Canada and internationally by taking up the struggle to put an end to the bankrupt capitalist system and replace it with a socialist society. This, above all, requires the building of a new mass working class party committed to a socialist and internationalist programthe Socialist Equality Party. On Thursday morning, the regime of Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno illegally terminated Julian Assanges political asylum, inviting British police into the countrys London embassy to arrest him. Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy by a group of British police officers. Even as he was being brutally manhandled into a police van, Assange challenged his persecutors, The UK must resist this attempt by the Trump administration The UK must resist! Julian Assange was arrested Thursday morning at the Ecuadorian embassy in London Assanges expulsion from the embassy and his arrest are unprecedented crimes, said James Cogan, the national secretary of the SEP (Australia). A journalist and publisher, who has committed no crime, has had his asylum terminated and has been dragged off to prison in violation of repeated UN rulings upholding his status as a political refugee. The attack on Assange is directed against the democratic rights of the working class. It is aimed at creating a precedent for the suppression of mass opposition to war, austerity and dictatorship, Cogan added. The arrest of Julian Assange by a Metropolitan Police snatch squad is a political crime for which the Conservative government of Theresa May and the Ecuadorian government of Lenin Moreno are politically responsible, said Chris Marsden, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in Britain. The arrest took place after police were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy by the ambassador and following what UK Foreign Minister Sir Alan Duncan said was extensive dialogue between our two countries. Behind the scenes the Trump administration in the United States is orchestrating events. The Socialist Equality Party denounces this conspiracy. We will do everything in our power to mobilise the broadest protest movement by workers and youth against what are preparatory moves to extradite the Wikileaks founder to the US in clear violation of international law. At around 5:37 a.m. US Eastern time, WikiLeaks confirmed Assanges arrest, tweeting: URGENT: Ecuador has illegally terminated Assanges political asylum in violation of international law. He was arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian embassy minutes ago. Several minutes later, WikiLeaks tweeted: URGENT: Julian Assange did not walk out of the embassy. The Ecuadorian ambassador invited British police into the embassy and he was immediately arrested. British Home Secretary Sajid Javid immediately took to Twitter to declare: Nearly seven years after entering the Ecuadorian embassy, I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK. I would like to thank Ecuador for its cooperation & @metpoliceuk for its professionalism. No one is above the law. The bail charges against Assange are politically motivated and were resolved years ago. The transparent purpose of the WikiLeaks founders detention by the British authorities is to facilitate his extradition to the US. This was confirmed by Assanges lawyers, who stated that he was arrested not only for the bogus bail violations, but also after an extradition request from the US on fabricated conspiracy charges. The Trump administration, with the support of the Democrats, is seeking to prosecute Assange for his role in WikiLeaks exposure of war crimes, mass surveillance and illegal diplomatic intrigues. The Moreno regime has declared that it terminated Assanges asylum because he had violated an arbitrary protocol that it imposed in October last year. In violation of international law, the protocol banned Assange from making any political statements, including about his own plight. As WikiLeaks has repeatedly stated, the protocol was a transparent pretext for violating Assanges asylum. Morenos government has functioned as a vassal of the Trump administration, subjecting Ecuadorian diplomats to interrogation by the US Department of Justice and spying on Assange on behalf of the CIA. The Democratic Party is fully collaborating with the Trump administration in this outrageous attack on Assange, said Joe Kishore, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States. It has been a central purpose and outcome of the Democrats' reactionary anti-Russia campaign. The arrest of Assange and Chelsea Manning is an attack on the democratic rights of all workers and must be opposed. Assanges arrest has triggered widespread popular revulsion and condemnation from leading journalists. The action of the British police in literally dragging Julian Assange from the Ecuadorean embassy and the smashing of international law by the Ecuadorean regime in permitting this barbarity are crimes against the most basic natural justice, wrote Australian journalist John Pilger on Twitter. This is a warning to all journalists. SEP Australia National Secretary James Cogan concluded: The Moreno regime, the British government of Prime Minister Theresa May and all those involved in the conspiracy to force Assange from the embassy have committed a violation of international law that will brand them forever as criminals and gangsters. The SEP will do everything it can to mobilise the immense support that exists for Assange. We condemn the Australian government and the entire political establishment for abandoning Assange, an Australian citizen, and collaborating in the attacks on his fundamental rights. Now more than ever, the SEP will fight to build a mass movement to force the Australian government to fulfil its obligations to Assange. It must compel the British government to allow Assange to leave the country and return to Australia, with a guarantee against extradition to the US. The SEP (Australia) will hold rallies tomorrow, Friday April 12, at 1 p.m. at the Martin Place Amphitheatre in Sydney and at 4 p.m. outside the Victorian state library in Melbourne to demand that the Australian government take immediate action to defend Assange. Christine Assange, Julians mother and the most determined campaigner for his freedom, issued the following statement endorsing the rallies: I urge everyone currently in Australia, citizens or visitors, to attend the rallies tomorrow to demand that the Australian government act urgently to protect Julian and bring him home. We are in election mode and it is a very good time to use your people power. We appeal to all workers, young people and defenders of democratic rights to attend. At a press conference in London yesterday, WikiLeaks detailed a vast and illegal surveillance operation against its founder, Julian Assange, inside Ecuadors British embassy, where he was granted asylum in 2012. The material presented by the publishers editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and Assanges lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, demonstrated that every aspect of the WikiLeaks founders life over more than a year, including medical consultations and private legal meetings, had been spied upon by Ecuadorian officials inside the embassy. Julian Assange The revelations are another damning exposure of the collaboration of the Ecuadorian regime of President Lenin Moreno with the British and American authorities, aimed at illegally terminating Assanges political asylum. They follow WikiLeaks warning last Friday that a high-level source within the Ecuadorian state had informed it that Assange would be expelled from the embassy within hours or days. Opening the press conference, Hrafnsson said that the surveillance entails a total violation of Assanges privacy. It covered everything on the life of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, and demonstrated that since Moreno came to power in 2017, the WikiLeaks founder had been living in a Truman Show like situation. He explained that WikiLeaks became aware of the extent of the spying several weeks ago, when it learnt that a group of individuals in Spain was passing around material gathered within the embassy. Hrafnsson corresponded with the group and met with them in Spain around 10 days ago. The individuals, who allegedly include a Spanish national previously implicated in extortion, demanded that WikiLeaks provide three million euros for hundreds of thousands of documents, audio recordings, videos and photos taken in the embassy. They showed Hrafnsson samples of the material, which he recorded with a hidden camera and showed at the press conference. The group is being pursued by an investigative magistrate in Madrid, after WikiLeaks assisted Spanish police carry out a sting operation. It is not known how they came into possession of the material. Among the documents held by the group was a confidential legal note from Assanges Spanish lawyer on a case last year challenging Ecuadors imposition of a protocol gagging Assange. Hrafnsson stated that the only conceivable way in which the document had been disclosed, was that it had been stolen by officials in the Ecuadorian embassy, when it was briefly left unattended, and copied. The Spanish group also had video and audio recordings of Assanges legal meetings, including those relating to cases against Ecuador, and of his medical examinations. They had the passport details of all of Assanges visitors and videos from the embassy lobby. Hrafnsson stated that the vast surveillance within the embassy had been all for one purpose, which was to serve US government interests who want to indict and imprison Assange, a publisher, for the crime of publishing truthful material. He noted that the Trump administration had requested visitor logs from the embassy earlier this year, and that the Moreno regime had allowed the US Department of Justice to interrogate Ecuadorian officials and diplomats about Assange. Hrafnsson said that it was likely that all of the material gathered in the embassy had been turned over to US authorities. Fidel Navaez, Kristinn Hrafnsson and Jennifer Robinson at the press conference Robinson explained that Ecuadors spying involved a severe breach of lawyer client privilege, which had fundamentally undermined the ability of WikiLeaks lawyers to defend Assange. WikiLeaks, she said, would be renewing an application to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to intervene in defence of Assange, and submitting a new complaint to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on privacy. The special rapporteurs on torture, and on privacy, are both set to meet with Assange on April 25. Fidel Navaez, who served as Ecuadors consul to Britain until mid-last year, warned that Assanges situation was more precarious than ever. One thing is absolutely clear, he said, with a new government, Ecuador is not protecting Julian anymore Quite the contrary, the government is making everything possible to end the asylum. The only reason why it hasnt happened yet, in my opinion, is because of the international shame, the historic shame, that will go to Ecuador if it does so. Navaez condemned the Moreno regimes shutting-off of Assanges internet access and communications in March 2018, and the imposition of severe restrictions on his asylum. He declared that political asylum was not a contract between two parties, but an inviolable human right and international institution. The former Ecuadorian diplomat said that the surveillance operation would have been authorised by the highest levels of the Moreno regime. He noted that last year, a new set of security cameras were installed in the building, equipped with audio recording capabilities. The press conference itself demonstrated the shameful role of the corporate media in the persecution of Assange, a journalist and publisher. In response to the grave material presented, virtually all of the reporters asked hostile questions aimed at maligning the WikiLeaks founder and downplaying the threats that he faces. One journalist asked whether, in light of the Trump administrations pursuit of Assange, WikiLeaks regretted having helped Trump get elected by publishing material from Russia. In reality, WikiLeaks published leaked documents in 2016 that revealed that the Democratic National Committee sought to rig the partys primaries against Senator Bernie Sanders on behalf of war-monger and big business operative Hillary Clinton. It also published secret speeches delivered by Clinton to Wall Street banks, in which she pledged to do their bidding. Hrafnsson responded by declaring that it was a duty of journalists to publish material that was truthful, newsworthy and in the public interest, and that he hoped the gathered representatives of the press would agree with this elementary proposition. It is an indictment of the role of the corporate media, as a servile arm of the state, that one unidentified journalist shouted that he did not. He pathetically stated that there were unspecified laws which we as professional journalists sometimes choose to comply with, by suppressing true and newsworthy information. The Ecuadorian surveillance operation confirms that Assange is the target of an unprecedented international political conspiracy centred in the United States. The immense resources being expended in pursuit of Assange by US and British imperialism, and their lackeys, including the Moreno regime, demonstrate the lengths to which they will go to prevent principled reporters and publishing organisations from revealing the truth. Amid the reemergence of the class struggle, governments around the world are censoring the internet, targeting left-wing and anti-war websites and persecuting journalists and whistleblowers, in preparation for the suppression of mass opposition to war, austerity and dictatorship The flagrantly illegal spying also underlines the fact that the major powers do not have any case against Assange that would withstand judicial scrutiny, in Britain, the US or under international law. They are desperately seeking to cobble together a case through dirty tricks operations and political repression. That is why for the past four weeks, the Trump administration has held Chelsea Manning, who leaked the US armys Iraq and Afghan war logs and hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks in 2010, in solitary confinement. Her only crime has been to refuse to give perjured testimony to a Grand Jury aimed at concocting charges against Assange. Significantly, Hrafnsson and Robinson stated that in their opinion, the reason Assange had not been expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy since Friday was that the conspiracy to terminate his asylum had been leaked and publicised. Navaez declared that Assanges fate depended upon international solidarity. The immense support for the WikiLeaks founder among millions of workers and young people, who rightly view him as a heroic figure, must be developed into a mass political movement fighting for his freedom. The World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Parties around the world call for the broadest expression of opposition to the persecution of Assange and Manning, including through the organisation of campaigns at university campuses and in working-class suburbs, meetings, protests and rallies. On March 17, the CEOs of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, Christian Sewing and Martin Zielke, announced the start of negotiations on a merger of the two banks. Speculation about a possible merger have surfaced a number of times following the financial crisis of 2008, but the economic rationality of such a decision was repeatedly called into question. The vehemence with which the German government in particular is now pushing for the merger of the two banks can only be explained by political motives: it is part of the effort to establish Germany and Europe as world powers capable of competing with the US and China. This is made clear by the National Industrial Strategy 2030, which the German Economics Minister Peter Altmaier presented to the press in February 2019. The strategy calls for the formation of national champions, big and strong players on a level playing field with competitors from the US or China. As justification, the paper states: The emergence of a comprehensive world market in more and more regions increasingly raises the question of the critical size required for an industrial player to compete successfully in international competition. The examples given include various industries and spheres in finance and banking. The driving force behind the merger plans of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank is German finance minister Olaf Scholz (SPD), who has been holding talks at an international level for months with rival international banks to explore the opportunities for German institutions on the world market. One year ago, Scholz appointed a finance industry insider, Jorg Kukies, as secretary of state at the finance ministry. Kukies is the former head of the German branch of the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, which also acts as adviser for Commerzbank. While Germany is a major industrial powerhouse and third in terms of exports worldwide, behind China and the US, it lacks a major bank to match those of its main rivals. In terms of total assets, Deutsche Bank ranks 15th in the world, behind four Chinese, four American, three Japanese, two French and one British bank. Ranking second among German banks is the DZ-Bank, which is placed 51st in world rankings. Commerzbank is Germanys third-largest bank (54th place in world rankings). After a merger, the Deutsche Commerzbank, with total assets of over 1,800 billion euros would rank ninth in the world and third in Europe, behind the British HSBC (2,350 billion euros) and the French BNP Paribas (2,000 billion euros). As long as goods and capital circulated relatively freely internationally, the weakness of its banking sector was not a fundamental problem for the German bourgeoisie. The international financial crisis of 2008, however, ushered in merciless rivalry on the global financial markets. The conflicts between the imperialist powers are coming to a head. Free trade is being replaced by the trade war, championed by the US. The efforts of the German government to create national champions are directly related to its striving to once again become a world power, which requires a corresponding build-up of the countrys military forces. The German army has undergone a process of permanent rearmament following the announcement by former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in 2014 that Germany was too big to comment on world politics only from the outside. In order to become a world power, however, German imperialism needs not only a powerful army, but also a globally active bank to finance trade, domestic and foreign investment and its defence industry. The Achilles heel of the German economy is its financial dependence on the USmost recently confirmed by the billions in fines lodged by the US against major German players such as Siemens, VW and Deutsche Bank. Other examples are the US sanctions against Iran and other countries. China's growing financial power is also being followed in Berlin with concern. Deutsche Bank played a major role in the First and Second World Wars. Already at its founding in 1870, it set itself the goal of finally conquering for Germany a place on the table of financial mediation... This policy then laid the foundation for financing German imperialist expansion in Asia, Africa and South America. Some economists and financial experts have questioned the viability of the merger project. They fear that the two troubled banks will pull each other into the abyss. Two sick patients do not make a single healthy one, some commented, with reference to the low profitability and the relatively high cost overheads of the two institutions. Commerzbank's share price has fallen 42 percent and Deutsche Bank's 71 percent during the past five years. Between 2015 and 2017, Deutsche Bank reported billions in losses, largely resulting from criminal charges for speculation lodged in the US. In the last ten years alone, Deutsche Bank has had to pay up 17 billion euros in fines. For the German government, however, the merger of the two banks is a political project not an economic one. It is to be financed by massive job losses and drastic cost reductions. The Verdi trade union anticipates that 60 percent of bank branches will close. At present, Deutsche Bank has 2,064 branches, (1,409 in Germany) and Commerzbank about 1,000. Together, the two banks employ 140,000 people. Estimates of expected job losses vary between 30,000 and 40,000 jobs. The business magazine Capital speculates whether the current management of Deutsche Bank really has the strength and ruthlessness necessary to dismantle tens of thousands of jobs. In this respect the bank management can rely on the support of the SPD and Verdi, which are both determined to create a national bank champion. Harald Christ, an executive member of the SPDs economic forum and former holder of a leading position at Postbank and Deutsche Bank, told the broadcaster n-tv that Germany confronted a fatal dependency should it lack its own powerful major bank. For a merger, of course, the focus is on lowering costs, he explained, which means costs of material and staff. The Verdi union, whose representatives sit on the boards of both banks, have announced temporary protest strikes against the feared job cuts to begin on March 28. These, however, serve merely to let off steam, while Verdi and its works council officials work behind the scenes to develop the plans for job cuts. With his faction-wracked government beset by deepening economic and political crises, Prime Minister Scott Morrison today set May 18 as the date for an Australian federal election. Even the extraordinary timing of Morrisons announcement was revealing. It is an anxious bid to shut down parliament immediately and go to the polls as quickly as possible before the economic situation worsens and further rifts erupt in the ruling Liberal-National Coalition. Morrison went to government house at 7am to ask the governor-general to not just dissolve parliament, as usual for an election, but to prorogue it. Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove proroguedthat is, suspendedthe Senate as of 8.29 am, exercising his power to do so under section 5 of the Constitution. Senate estimates hearings scheduled for today and tomorrow were immediately cancelled. This ends any further, even limited, parliamentary scrutiny of last weeks budget and its fraudulent economic predictions, on which both the government and the opposition Labor Party have based all their election pledges. At an 8am media conference, Morrison declared that the election was a clear choice between the Coalition and Labor as to whom voters should trust to build a strong Australia. In reality, the established parliamentary parties offer the working classthe vast majority of the populationno choice. This includes the Greens and an array of right-wing populists and independents. All support the existing capitalist profit system and its agenda of austerity and militarism. Far from trust, there is seething hostility toward the political establishment elite after decades in which successive Coalition and Labor-led governments have enforced ever-widening social inequality, falling wages and conditions, deteriorating public services, and participated in US-led wars. The Socialist Equality Party will stand candidates in the election to oppose this entire agenda. The SEP will be the only party to expose the lies of the political establishment and the corporate media, and tell the truth: the only way forward for the working class lies in unifying its struggles globally to abolish the capitalist profit system and establish workers governments to carry out a socialist program. Such is the fraud of the official election campaign that both the old ruling parties have adopted the phony catch cry of a fair go as their central theme. Morrison told the media conference he believed in a fair go for those who have a go, insisting that this could be achieved only through individual hard work. Acutely aware of rising working-class unrest, Labor Party leader Bill Shorten issued a video in which he again declared that his party stood for a fair go for Australia. He repeated the bogus claims he made in last weeks budget reply speech that a Labor government would make Australia less unequal. These unabashed lies by both parties were further exposed just before Morrison called the election. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) effectively demolished all the economic forecasts in last weeks budget. It issued a sharp downgrade for global growth predictions, and said Australias economy was slowing twice as fast as comparable countries. On top of the international downturn and trade war tensions ignited by the US, the IMF said an unexpectedly rapid and large fall in house prices in Australia meant the countrys economy was in a delicate situation. The IMFs representative Thomas Helbling told the Australian Financial Review: Thats always a big concern in a budget. The IMFs blunt assessment is another warning that whichever party forms the next government, it will rapidly abandon its election vows of fairness and deepen the brutal austerity drive. The IMF slashed its 2019 growth estimate for Australia from 2.8 percent to 2.1 percent, far below the budgets unreal forecasts of 2.75 percent in 2019 20 and 2020 21, and 3 percent in the following two years. That alone means cutting billions of dollars from social spending in order to meet the demands of the financial markets for a budget surplus. As for fairness, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued a report that exposed this fraud. It stated that Australias richest individuals are increasing their proportion of national income to some of the highest levels in the developed world, while middle-class Australians are being squeezed into lower incomes or absolute poverty at some of the fastest rates internationally. By middle class, the OECD means most of the working classthose households earning between $US19,537 and $US52,097 a year in purchasing power parity dollars. While upper income Australians, as a proportion of the population, grew by 2 percentage points between the mid-1980s and the mid-2010s, their share of income grew by 7 percentage points. Median incomes in Australia had doubled since the mid-1990s, but housing costs had lifted by 250 percent, education expenses had increased by 150 percent, and over-indebtedness had soared, placing households in what looks increasingly like a boat in rocky waters. Between 2007 and 2015, the OECD found the share of middle-income households falling into poverty in a single year was 4 percent, double the rate of the developed world and the same rate as impoverished Greece. These statistics provide only a pale picture of the inequality and falling living conditions imposed by the corporate ruling class and its political servants, both Coalition and Labor, over the past four decades. Since the global financial breakdown of 2008-09, this social assault has only intensified, with full-time jobs being casualised, young workers being pushed into low-paid and insecure work, and more than a million jobless and disabled workers forced to try to survive on sub-poverty welfare payments. In office since the Labor Party suffered a landslide defeat in 2013, the Coalition between the Liberals and the rural-based Nationals is being torn apart. The most right-wing factions, around Morrison, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, are seeking to divert rising social discontent and political disaffection in xenophobic and nationalist directions. Given the governments instability, sections of big business are again looking to the Labor Party, backed by the trade unions, to take office to suppress the resistance of the working class, as the Hawke and Keating governments did from 1983 to 1996 and the Rudd and Gillard governments from 2007 to 2013. The author also recommends: Australian Labor Party leader offers false hope of fair go in budget reply [5 April 2019] One person is dead and 17 more are injured, 6 critically, following a gas line explosion Wednesday morning in downtown Durham, North Carolina. The cause of the explosion has yet to be determined. Initially, Durham Police Department spokesman Wil Glenn stated the blast was caused when a contractor digging under the sidewalk struck a 2-inch gas pipe. Subsequent reports and statements by city officials, however, have walked back that statement, pending a complete investigation. Durham firefighters responded to an emergency services call regarding a gas leak at approximately 9:38 a.m. The leak was limited to the 100 block of North Duke St. After firefighters arrived they contacted Dominion Energy to begin the process of isolating the gas leak and determining if an evacuation was necessary. Witnesses downtown at the time stated they could smell the characteristic odor permeating the area. Firefighters began evacuating persons near the leak at approximately 10:00 a.m. Less than ten minutes later a fireball leveled the building located at 115 N. Duke St. and caused significant structural damage to four other nearby buildings. By 10:26 a.m. additional utility crews from PSNC Energy, a subsidiary of Dominion, arrived to assist in turning off the gas, which was still leaking. One PSNC worker was injured in the explosion. Over a quarter million people live in Durham, which is home to several colleges including Duke and North Carolina Central University. Seven of those injured were taken to Duke University Hospital, while one person is being treated at the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at the University of North Carolina in neighboring Chapel Hill. The concussion from the blast caused glass to shatter and at least one door blew off its hinges several blocks away from the initial blast zone. Local weather radar was able to detect the fire that raged for hours afterwards as firefighters sought to contain the damage as gas continued to fuel the inferno. Secondary school students at the nearby Durham School of the Arts were evacuated from their campus Wednesday and classes have been canceled today for inspections to ensure the stability of the building and surrounding structures. Speaking to the News & Observer, Jim Rogalski, 58, who worked across the street from the blast in a Duke University building, recalled the chaos that ensued: People were sitting at their desks and ceiling tiles were falling.You could barely see for 25 feet from all the dust. People were screaming. Four people working in the same building suffered deep lacerations when the explosion blew out glass windows, according to Rogalski. There was lots of screaming.it was pretty frantic there for a little bit until help showed up. While local officials are confident they have an accurate count of all injured persons, firefighter and rescue crews will continue to sift through the rubble to determine if any are unaccounted for. The search could take up to two days, Fire Chief Robert Zoldos II told local reporters. Residents have reported that water in their homes has turned cloudy or brown following the explosion. The local water utility has stated this is due to the extra demand on the system from the fire department as they extinguished the fires. In a press release Dominion Energy, the American energy conglomerate which posted over $2.4 billion in profits in 2018, relayed its thoughts and prayers to those affected. Follow-up tweets by the company sought to deflect blame for the deadly explosion to a third party contractor that was operating in the area. According to violationtracker.org, Dominion has been responsible for 87 different infractions, mostly environmental, totaling over $1 billion in penalties, settlements and fines since 2000. The International Monetary Fund has pointed to a slowdown in growth for 70 percent of the world economy by value in 2019, with the most significant weakening taking place in the advanced economies. Any recovery in 2020 is dependent on expanded production in emerging market economies. The forecast was contained in the IMFs World Economic Outlook report issued on Tuesday for its spring meeting in Washington this week. The WEO cut the forecast for global growth for 2019 by 0.2 percentage points from its prediction in January and said global growth would fall to 3.3 percent this year from 3.6 percent in 2018. Commenting on the report, IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said the downward revision reflected negative revisions for several major economies including the euro area, Latin America, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Measures of industrial production and investment remain weak in many advanced and emerging market economies and global trade has yet to recover. The IMF has forecast a return to 3.6 percent global growth in 2020, but this is based on shaky foundations. According to Gopinath, the recovery is precarious and is predicated on a rebound in emerging market and developing economies. Specifically, she wrote, it relies on an expected rebound in growth in Argentina and Turkey and some improvement in a set of stressed developing countries, and is therefore subject to considerable uncertainty. Growth in the advanced economies would continue to slow, despite a partial recovery in the euro area. The fact that the prospect for recovery is dependent on Turkey and Argentina, both of which have experienced major falls in value of their currencies, speaks volumes about the state of the world economy. While the IMF says the global economy is continuing to grow at a reasonable rate and recession is not in its projections, there are many downside risks. As Gopinath noted: A deterioration in market sentiment could rapidly tighten financing conditions in an environment of large private and public sector debt in many countries, including sovereign-bank doom-loop risks. Such risks arise when the debt problems of major financial institutions impact on the stability of the banking system of the country in which those institutions are based and leads to a negative feedback loop. This risk is not confined to emerging markets, with Italy, one of the G7 group of major economies, a possible candidate. The IMF has described the situation as a delicate moment for the global economy. If downside risks do not materialise and policy support is effective then global growth should rebound, Gopinath wrote. If, however, any of the major risks materialise, then the expected recoveries in stressed economies, export-dependent economies, and highly-indebted economies may be derailed. The worsening situation in the advanced economies was highlighted in a comment by Financial Times economist Gavin Davies on Monday. While holding out the possibility for a recovery, he noted that no one in policy circles believes that a return to the strong global expansion seen in 2017 is very likely. Davies pointed to three main factors in the continuing weakness in global manufacturing and merchandise trade. The growth in business capital expenditure in the global economy was now effectively down to zero after reaching 6 percent in 2017. The escalation of trade tensions between the US and China, and the US and Europe had disrupted global supply chains and there had been a cyclical downturn in IT production in emerging Asia which had yet to reach bottom. Among the reasons for the slowdown, the IMFs WEO report pointed to trade tensions that increasingly took a toll on business confidence. It warned that a further escalation and the associated increases in policy uncertainty could further weaken growth. Setting out policy priorities, the report said the main issue at the multilateral level is for countries to resolve trade disagreements cooperatively, without raising distortionary barriers that would further destabilise a slowing global economy. However, events are moving in the opposite direction. Despite reports about what the IMF called a more optimistic outlook for a settlement of the US-China trade conflict, the two sides have yet to reach an agreement. The US is insisting that there are still major issues to be resolved, including on intellectual property rights and an enforcement mechanism for any agreement. The Trump administration has also chosen to increase tensions with Europe by moving to act on a World Trade Organisation report that the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus had received subsidies that benefited it as against its US rival Boeing. The finding was brought down in last May and Airbus maintains that it has taken action to comply. On Tuesday, however, Trump launched a new trade offensive, declaring in a tweet: The World Trade Organisation finds that the European Union subsidies to Airbus had adversely impacted the United States, which will now put tariffs on $11 billion of EU products! The EU has taken advantage of the US on trade for many years. It will soon stop! The list of possible tariffs covers a range of goods, from aeroplanes and helicopters to agricultural products such as wine and cheese. US Representative Robert Lighthizer said the case had been in litigation for 14 years and the time has come for action. On the other side, the EU is also preparing its own measures against the US for the failure by Washington to end tax breaks for Boeing that harm Airbus. The announcement of the new tariff threat came as Boeing faces a deepening crisis over two crashes of its 737 Max 8 plane, resulting in the deaths of 346 people, due to faulty software in its automatic pilot system. This again underscores the direct ties between the US government and the aerospace giant. The new tariff threat against Europe is also related to the negotiations between the US and the EU over a trade deal. Last July, under the threat of having a 25 percent tariff imposed on European auto exports, European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker agreed to bilateral discussions. Those negotiations have yet to begin. No progress has been made in preliminary discussions because of the US demand that agriculture must be put on the table in the face of the EUs insistence that there was never any agreement to do so. The threat of auto tariffs was not withdrawn. Trump has until May to consider a report from the Commerce Department as to whether the tariffs should be imposed by invoking national security grounds. Reporting on the latest tariff move, Bloomberg noted that Trump was sending a clear message to the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank: My trade wars arent finished and a weakening global economy will just have to deal with it. Former US trade negotiator Wendy Cutler told the news agency that Trump had been able to use the threat of tariffs to force the EU, Japan and others into negotiations, but pointed to the potential for a major escalation. The question is at what point does it backfire? At what point do countries just say enough is enough? The US government is stepping up its campaign of repression and persecution of immigrants, amid press reports Wednesday that the Trump administration was pushing for a series of harsh new measures, including some form of forcible separation of asylum seekers and their children, extending the length of time that children can be detained, and denying green cards to legal immigrants who have received public assistance (defined so loosely that it includes subsidized meals for school children). Both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that the new policy under consideration on family separation was called binary choice, and was premised on jailing every adult who files a claim for refugee status for the entire period that their claim is being evaluated, a process that takes months, if not years. Those asylum seekers who are parents would be required to decide, when they make an application for refugee status, either to have their children jailed with them, or to have the children taken away for the duration of the claim evaluation period. ICE and the Border Patrol are currently unable to actually implement binary choice, since they lack the detention facilities required to jail all asylum seekers and all their children. But the policy decision would nonetheless have a deterrent effect, in the eyes of administration officials, spreading terror among Central Americans considering flight to the United States. The crackdown on asylum seekers has already resulted in a significant increase in the rate of denial of asylum claims, from 21 percent in 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, to 47 percent in January 2019. A major factor is the decision of the Department of Justice last year to deny asylum claims based on fear of domestic violence or gang violence. Trump spewed lies about this subject in comments to the press Tuesday and Wednesday, claiming, Were not looking to do that now, referring to family separation, then adding, But it brings a lot more people to the border when you dont do it. One administration official, speaking to the Post, claimed that it was legal to separate asylum seekers from their children because it was legal to separate US citizens arrested for crimes from their children. Thats why we know its legal, the official said. If you cannot separate children from their parents for purposes of imposing criminal sanctions on an adult, then you wouldnt be able to prosecute anybody who has children, and wed have to redo the entire criminal justice system. This line of reasoning leaves out one essential fact: asylum seekers are not criminals, and under both US and international law, their actions in crossing the US border and then surrendering to US border agents are entirely legal. The policy of the Trump administration seeks, on the contrary, to criminalize the act of seeking asylum, to presume that those fleeing persecution and violence, particularly in Central America, are part of what Trump inevitably declared to be a con game. The con-man president should look in the mirror. Two more top officials of the Department of Homeland Security have stepped down, as a purge of the agency accelerates in the wake of the firing of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Sunday. On Tuesday, the acting deputy secretary, Claire Grady, submitted her resignation, allowing Trump to name Kevin McAleenan, director of Customs and Border Protection, as Nielsens temporary replacement. On Wednesday, Ronald Vitiello, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, submitted his resignation. Trump reversed himself last week, withdrawing Vitiellos nomination to hold the ICE leadership position permanently, which required Senate confirmation. Trump said at the time that he wanted to go in a tougher direction. Press reports said that the purge of DHS was triggered when Customs and Border Protection advised the White House that more than 100,000 migrants had been taken into custody along the US-Mexico border in March, the highest one-month total in more than a decade, including 9,000 unaccompanied children, and 58,000 people travelling in family groups. Trump was also dissatisfied with the performance of the DHS unit that handles refugee claims for asylum. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed a credible fear of persecution, the threshold for considering an asylum claim, in 74,677 of the 97,728 interviews that were completed in the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2018. That proportion, about 75 percent, completely refutes Trumps howling that most refugee claims are bogus. Trump underscored the political motivation behind the anti-immigrant campaign Wednesday, travelling to San Antonio, Texas for a fund-raiser with wealthy Republicans. He said that he and other Republican candidates would use the border crackdown against their Democratic opponents in the election. I think they are going to pay a very big price in 2020, Trump said. I think the border is going to be an incredible issue. He added, in a grotesque lie, They want to have open borders. Actually, the Democratic Party has largely supported the barbaric anti-immigrant campaign, only raising objections when there was widespread public revulsion last summer over the forced separation of asylum seekers and their children, and when two children from Central America died in December while in the custody of Customs and Border Protection agents. Senator Bernie Sanders, who leads in fundraising and poll numbers among the announced Democratic presidential candidates, recently went out of his way to repudiate open borders and embrace the claims of Trumps fascistic adviser Stephen Miller that increased immigration was a threat to the wages of American workers. (See Bernie Sanders joins Trumps attack on open borders) Meanwhile, three Republican senators introduced legislation Wednesday to cut in half the number of legal immigrants permitted to enter the United States. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, David Perdue of Georgia, and Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act, a version of legislation that Cotton and Perdue first proposed in 2017, but which never received a vote. The RAISE Act would reduce legal immigration from the present level of about one million a year to about 500,000, in part by eliminating the diversity visa lottery and cutting the number of refugees offered permanent residency. The biggest change would be a sharp reduction in the number of family members who could be sponsored by American citizens and legal residents. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to form his fourth consecutive Likud-led coalition government after an election that saw a spectacular collapse of Labor, the party that governed Israel for the first 30 years of its existence. Netanyahu will head a coalition of ultra-orthodox religious and right-wing parties as well as an openly fascistic organization, all of which have pledged to introduce legislation giving him immunity from prosecution for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He called early elections to face down Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit over his expected corruption indictment for allegedly granting regulatory concessions to businessmen in return for lavish gifts and favourable news coverage. In an unexpectedly close race, portrayed as a referendum on Netanyahu, the incumbent won the same number of seats, 35, in the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, as the Blue and White electoral alliance of his main rival, former Army Chief of Staff General Benny Gantz. He was able to emerge with a clear road to a new term in office because his allies in the far-right and religious parties won a further 30 seats. Gantz could at most muster only an additional 20 supporters for his nominally centre-left government--a misnomer, as he was offering in opposition to Netanyahus fascistic orientation only redoubled militarism. He conceded defeat on Wednesday, the day after the election, when it became clear that Netanyahus right-wing bloc had a 10-seat lead. President Reuven Rivlin will call on Netanyahu to form a government once the 300,000 double-sealed votes by soldiers, prisoners and overseas Israelis, equivalent to eight Knesset seats, have been counted. Since at least two parties are close to the threshold of 3.25 percent of the vote, the distribution of seats among the various parties may change slightly when the final count is announced on April 17. Included in Netanyahus bloc are the religious parties, Shas and United Torah, which increased their seats from 13 to 16, in line with the increase in the religious population; Kulanu, a split-off from Likud, whose seats have fallen from 10 to four; and the far-right Rightist Union, with five seats. The Rightist Union agreed to an electoral alliance, brokered by Netanyahu, with the fascist and anti-Arab terrorist Jewish Power, comprised of followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the transfer of Palestinians to neighbouring Arab countries and a ban on intermarriage between Jews and Arabs. The precursor to Jewish Power, Kahanes Kach Party, was banned as a terrorist organization. Another right-wing nationalist party, Avigdor Liebermans Israel Beiteinu (Israel is our Home), won five seats. Israel Beiteinu quit the government in November last year because of what Lieberman said was an insufficiently aggressive policy towards Gaza, leaving Netanyahus government with a majority of one. Lieberman wants to make loyalty to the Jewish state a condition for citizenship. He has said he would join a Netanyahu-led government only if it waged a proper fight against terrorism in the south, i.e., against Gaza; enact a law to draft ultra-Orthodox men into the military; and introduce a pension overhaul to help immigrants, his main support base. Without Israel Beiteinu, Netanyahu will have only a bare majority in the Knesset. Netanyahus far-right and religious allies will seek to leverage his weakened parliamentary position to their advantage, adding to the deepening instability of Israels political system. The New Right party, formed by Netanyahus justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, and his education minister, Naftali Bennett, as a split-off from their own nationalist-religious Jewish Home party, is part of Netanyahus electoral bloc. It has thus far failed to reach the 3.25 percent threshold. It wants to limit the power of Israels judiciary while strengthening the influence of both the executive and the Knesset over the courts, and to free the armed forces of all legal constraints. Shaked provoked international outrage after appearing in an election ad in sultry poses, promoting a fictional perfume called Fascism. In the ad, she opens the bottle and sniffs its content, saying, To me, it smells like democracy. On Election Day, Netanyahu warned his Likud members against complacency, telling them the party was in danger of losing power to pro-Arab leftists and they had to get to the polls. Emboldened by US President Donald Trumps announcement last month recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 war, and determined to bolster Likuds vote over his right-wing rivals, Netanyahu declared his intention, in the final hours of the campaign, to annex the West Bank. He was able to increase Likuds seats in the Knesset from 30 to 35 at the expense of his right-wing coalition partners, whose Jewish supremacist and fascistic policies he has adopted wholesale to build his support base. His right-wing bloc remains approximately the same, at 65, as in the 2015 election, on an election turnout of 61 percent compared with 62 percent in 2015. This corrupt and widely despised politician was able to win the election because of the collapse of the Zionist left, upon which Gantz was dependent if he was to form a government. Labors vote fell to a historic low, resulting in just six projected seats, down from 19 in 2015, and the same number as the Israeli Arab coalition Haddash-Taal. Labors parliamentary representation will likely fall even lower, to five, when all the votes are counted. At the outset of the campaign, Labor leader Avi Gabbay dumped his alliance partner, Tzipni Livni, leader of the Hatnua Party, on live television in the hope of salvaging his party, which is hemorrhaging supporters. With both parties facing electoral wipe-out following the demise of the two-state solution, after Trumps decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, Livni and her Hatnua withdrew from the elections and from political life. The virtual disintegration of the Zionist left, which controlled the government for the first three decades of the country's 71-year history, is a measure of the rightward movement of the Israeli ruling class and the political evolution of the Zionist project upon which it is based. Gantz, a former general with no political experience, had no economic programme to resolve the soaring cost of housing, which sparked mass protests in 2011, nor did he offer any answer to overcrowded hospitals and schools and the totally inadequate transportation system. In a country wracked by social tensions and the highest poverty rate of any of the developed countries, neither candidate addressed the social crisis. Turnout was reportedly at a historic lowamid calls for an election boycottamong Israels Palestinian community, which constitutes some 20 percent of the electorate. Some of the right-wing parties waged overtly anti-Arab campaigns, and Netanyahus Likud provided activists with 1,200 hidden cameras to monitor Arab polling stations, which prompted the Central Elections Committee to file a police complaint. Gantz was touted as a candidate more amenable to reaching an accommodation with the Palestinians, despite having led Israels murderous wars against Gaza in 2012 and 2014. But he repeatedly ruled out any political alliance with the two Arab parties, Raam-Balad and Hadash-Taal, without which he had no chance of forming a stable coalition government. Both slates had pledged to ensure a Jewish majority in Israel/Palestinea policy whose logical extension is fascism, xenophobia and apartheid, and whose costs will be borne by both the Palestinian and Jewish working class in the interests of Israels corporate elite. The increasingly corrupt, militaristic and authoritarian character of Israels political partiesin a country whose founding was defended with the claim that it would provide a refuge from fascism and anti-Semitismmirrors similar trends internationally. It demonstrates the bankruptcy and reactionary dead-end of the entire Zionist project. Almost 40 percent of Israeli voters, without any political vehicle to express their hostility to the political perspective on offer, abstained. A large outbreak of measles in the Orthodox Jewish community in parts of Brooklyn prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to declare a public health emergency on Tuesday. Health officials said that the city would require unvaccinated people living in select ZIP codes in the Williamsburg neighborhood to receive the measles vaccine or face a citation or possible $1,000 fine. The move came following a spike in measles infections in New York City, where there have been 285 confirmed cases since the outbreak began in the fall. Twenty-one of these cases required hospitalizations, including five admissions to intensive care units. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 78 new cases of the potentially deadly measles virus in the United States last week, bringing the count to 465 so far this year, the second-greatest number of recorded cases in a year since measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. At the current rate, the number of measles cases by mid-year would surpass the 667 cases in 2014, the highest number since 2000. The 2014 cases were driven in part by a measles exposure at Disneyland in California and by an outbreak among unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio. In the first week in April, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts and Nevada confirmed their first measles patients. Another 15 states have already reported cases this year: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Over the last few months, an outbreak of measles has shaken Rockland County, a suburban county in New Yorks Hudson Valley of about 320,000 with a large population of Hasidic Jews. As of April, there were 167 reported cases of measles in the county since the beginning of the 2018-2019 outbreak. Eighty-five percent of these cases were children, ages 18 and younger. Nearly 60 percent of the cases have been among children 6 and under, and 15 percent of those afflicted were children younger than a year old. On Wednesday, officials in Westchester County, New York confirmed eight measles cases, mostly confined to unvaccinated children in one family, aged 6 months to 14 years. The children were exposed to the measles while attending family events in nearby Rockland County and Brooklyn. Earlier this year, Washington state Department of Health officials declared a state of emergency as they grappled with a measles outbreak in two counties in the state. There were 36 confirmed cases and 11 suspected cases of the viral infection in counties with a lower than normal vaccination rate. Most of the cases involved children between the ages of 1 and 10 who had not been vaccinated. Low immunization rates fail to provide herd immunity Health officials at the federal, state and local level point to a rate of immunization below that which provides herd immunity to the disease as the cause of the surge in measles cases. Herd immunity means that a sufficient number of people have been vaccinated so the disease cannot spread easily, even among those who cannot be vaccinated, including newborns, those with vaccine allergies, and some people with compromised immune systems. The measles vaccine is given as part of the combination measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) injection. The CDC recommends that children receive two doses: one at 12 through 15 months of age, the second at 4 through 6 years of age. Overall, about 91 percent of young children received the shot in 2016, according to the CDC. However, there are dozens of counties across the country where nonmedical exemption rates for the vaccine exceed the national average. Camas County, Idaho, led the nation in 2016-17, with a 27 percent opt-out rate. The measles virus is airborne and is transmitted by droplets from the nose, mouth or throat of an infected person, usually released through coughing or sneezing. These small particles can remain suspended in the air for long periods of time and can live on surfaces for up to two hours. The virus strikes after an incubation period of 10 to 12 days, so people carrying the virus can spread it to others before even knowing they have the disease. Usual symptoms include fever, cough, stuffy nose, and then the onset of the characteristic red rash. Loss of appetite, lethargy and confusion are common. While in uncomplicated cases sufferers, who are overwhelmingly children, begin to recover soon after the rash appears and feel better in about two to three weeks, up to 40 percent of patientsusually children under five, adults over 20, the undernourished and immunocompromisedsuffer complications. Children under age 5 have the highest probability of death from measles, with pneumonia being the most common cause. Less common complications include blindness, croup, mouth ulcers, ear infections, and severe diarrhea. Some children develop swelling of the brain, or encephalitis, which can lead to convulsions, loss of hearing, mental retardation or death. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in the US in 1963, there were 4 million measles cases with 48,000 hospitalizations and 500 deaths in the US every year. Measles was also a leading cause of death for children globally. Intense pockets of transmission still exist around the world today, especially in low-income countries. Europe saw more than 41,000 measles cases in the first half of 2018, with this spike also attributable to growing numbers of the unvaccinated. Unfounded beliefs about vaccines Aside from medical reasons, people in the US choose to opt out of the vaccine for themselves and their children for religious and philosophical reasons, as well as the mistaken belief that the vaccine can cause autism, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other developmental problems in children. One of the most prominent proponents of the link between vaccines and autism is the now-disbarred British physician Andrew Wakefield. He was the senior author of a 1998 Lancet study linking autism to the MMR vaccine. The study involved only 12 children, including 8 whose parents were already convinced of the MMR-autism connection. Ten of the 12 co-authors of the paper eventually issued a retraction. The Lancet also admitted that Wakefield had failed to disclose that his research had been funded by lawyers representing parents in lawsuits against vaccine-producing companies. The science shows that serious complications from the MMR vaccine are so rare that a causal relationship cannot be established. However, despite the debunking of Wakefields work, these unproven, anti-scientific theories persist and have taken hold in some communities. In the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, significant numbers of people refuse to have themselves and their children vaccinated based on the unfounded belief that the vaccines will harm their children. While most prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis urge observant Jews to be immunized, a 40-page Vaccine Safety Handbook has been circulated in the Brooklyn community which includes false warnings that vaccines cause autism and contain cells from aborted human fetuses. An editor of the group creating the handbook, Parents Education and Advocating for Childrens Health, told the New York Times in an email, Vaccines contain monkey, rat and pig DNA as well as cow-serum blood. For-profit health care and social inequality Contributing as well to the anti-vaccine movement is a well-deserved distrust of the pharmaceutical industry. As part of the for-profit health care system in America, drug company operations are geared toward improving their bottom line, not toward protecting and improving the health of the US population. Unless it is a new blockbuster vaccine like Gardasil 9manufactured by Merck and advertised widely on US television as a protection against the human papillomavirusvaccines are not a big money-maker for the drug companies. Gardasil led Mercks vaccine business for 2017, generating $2.3 billion and growing by 6 percent over 2016. By contrast, Mercks MMR II vaccine and Varivax, a chicken pox vaccine, brought in only $1.4 billion in 2014, a fraction of the companys $42.2 billion in global sales. The giant pharmaceuticals have little appetite for developing vaccines that are only given a few times over a persons life to protect them from deadly diseases. There is much more profit to be made from developing drugs for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions. This was shown during last years flu season, when doctors and clinics faced a shortage of the flu vaccine. The federal National Institutes of Health only committed $30 million in funding out of an already inadequate budget of $230 million overall in 2017 for the development of a universal flu vaccine that would protect an individual for life. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acknowledges that its National Vaccine Program is beholden to the private market, writing on its web page: Vaccines are developed through public-private partnershipsincluding researchers, government, manufacturers, purchasers, and policy makerswho have been successful at bringing new vaccines to licensure for broad use. These partnerships are central to the success of vaccine innovations. As in all aspects of the delivery of health care in America, even the public programs developed to promote vaccination fail to deliver to societys poor and most vulnerable. The CDCs Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, which is aimed at helping children whose families cannot afford recommended vaccinations to get them on schedule, fails to serve many children. Parents must first find a provider that participates in the VFC program. Then there can be a fee for the office visit. There can also be fees for non-vaccine services, such as for conditions that may be detected during an office visit. These fees can discourage parents from utilizing the program. Social inequality is a determining factor is the ability of working-class families to obtain overall health care services. Child Trends found that children without health insurance coverage are less likely than children with coverage to have received a well-child checkup in 201766 percent versus 91 percent, respectively. An HHS report in 2014 found that only 63 percent of children on Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor, received at least one medical screening in 2013, far below the departments 80 percent goal. The author also recommends: America is unprepared for the next deadly influenza outbreak [1 February 2018] US studies: More misery brought to you by Big Pharma [22 March 2019] US: Measles outbreak in Washington state prompts state of emergency [30 January 2019] Thirty years after General Wojciech Jaruzelskis Stalinist regime began to collapse, opening the way for the restoration of capitalism, the class struggle has again erupted in Poland. On Monday, more than 300,000 teachers launched an indefinite strike. It is the first national walkout by teachers in Poland in decades, and one of Polands largest strikes since the massive 198081 strike movement against the Stalinist dictatorship. The strike is part of an international wave of struggles by educators demanding better working conditions, higher wages and decent schools. The year 2018 saw the greatest number of US teachers go on strike in a quarter-century. In the Netherlands and Argentina, national teachers strikes were carried out last month amid ongoing teachers strikes in France, Tunisia, Morocco and other African countries. The teachers strikes are part of a broader upsurge of the international working class, including Central and Eastern Europe. The walkout by educators in Poland follows a two-week strike by workers at the national airline LOT and strikes by Polish Amazon workers. Recent months have seen strikes by workers in auto and other industries in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Kosovo, as well as mass protests against the so-called slave law adopted by the right-wing regime of Viktor Orban in Hungary, which forces workers to accept unpaid overtime. In Germany, tens of thousands of public-sector workers took part in warning strikes in February against the collapse of schools, intolerable working conditions and miserable wages. Thousands of transportation workers struck in Berlin in March, bringing the city to a halt. Last Saturday, 40,000 people protested in Berlin against rising rents, demanding the expropriation of real estate companies and hedge funds. The bourgeoisie fears the emergence from these struggles of a socialist movement of the working class. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung was appalled when a poll showed that the majority of German workers and youth support the demand for expropriation. Bewildered, this mouthpiece of the German banks commented: Almost 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Karl-Marx-Allee [the Berlin boulevard where demonstrators marched on Saturday] has become a herald of the reintroduction of socialism. Long live the revolution. The German and European media are imposing a virtual blackout on the Polish teachers strike because it shatters the official narrative promoted by the European Union. The Stalinist dictatorships restoration of capitalism did not relegate the class struggle to the dustbin of history. Among Eastern European workers, there is both deeply-rooted opposition to the nationalist, economically autarkic policies of the Stalinist regimes, which brutally suppressed the working class, and seething opposition to the consequences of capitalist restoration. In the 20th century, the Polish working class was among the most militant in Europe. It led monumental struggles against the Soviet bureaucracy during the Polish October of 1956, the workers uprising in December 1970 and the mass strikes in 1980 that began in the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk and spread throughout the entire country, involving over 400,000 workers. The claim that the October 1917 revolution in Russia led inevitably to Stalinism is a lie. It is refuted by the historical fact that there was a revolutionary socialist alternative that implacably opposed the Stalinist regime and fought for the program of world socialist revolution, which had guided the Bolshevik-led Revolution. That alternative was the Left Opposition which emerged in the early 1920s under the leadership of Leon Trotsky, who went on to found the Fourth International in 1938 after the collapse and betrayal of the Stalinist-led Comintern. The Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe carried out a bureaucratic expropriation of capitalist property in the late 1940s, but they were not socialist. The many struggles of workers in these countries against the Stalinist dictatorships demonstrated that there was an objective basis in the working class for the alternative perspective advanced by Trotsky: a political revolution against the state bureaucracies as part of a renewed international revolutionary struggle of the working class for socialism. With the Eastern European working class moving once again into struggle, these crucial political and historical experiences must be assimilated. As workers face the dangers of war and authoritarian rule across the region, the Polish strike is bringing teachers into headlong conflict with the forces that worked with the Polish Stalinist regime to restore capitalism three decades ago. Today, the Solidarity union is an openly right-wing movement aligned with Polands far-right Law and Justice Party (PiS) government. Its teachers branch was the only union that from the outset accepted the governments punitive terms. After the strike began on Monday, the head of Solidaritys teachers union, Ryszard Proksa, who is also a PiS local government official, denounced the teachers who walked out and threatened retribution against striking union branches. Polands main ZNP union, for its part, is seeking a quick end to the strike. ZNP leader Sawomir Broniarz has said the union wants to put out this fire, i.e., strike a rotten deal with the PiS. After four decades of bureaucratic suppression by the Stalinist regime, followed by three decades of capitalist restoration, workers in Eastern Europe face a crisis of perspective and leadership. The elementary requirements of conducting the strike raise the need to build new rank-and-file workers organizations, directly controlled by the workers themselves and independent of the unions. However, Polish history provides a particularly sharp lesson that the role of these rank-and-file organizations depends critically on the perspective of their leadership. The central issue that emerged in the struggle against Stalinism in Poland was the conflict between the Trotskyist perspective defended by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and that advanced by the petty-bourgeois Pabloite renegades from Trotskyism, who abandoned the program of the Fourth International and claimed that the Stalinist parties could be pressured into playing a revolutionary role. The Solidarity movement emerged out of genuine, independent working class opposition against Stalinism and organized at its peak 10 million workers. However, it fell under a right-wing leadership that set Poland on course not to a political revolution against Stalinism, but to capitalist restoration. In this, Pabloite figures such as Jacek Kuron played a major role. Kuron promoted Lech Waesa into Solidaritys leadership, after which Waesa became its leader and then the president of the Polish capitalist government. Kuron himself participated in the round-table talks in 1989, becoming minister of labor amid capitalist restoration in 19891990 and 19921993. Three decades of capitalist rule have produced not the flowering of democracy and rise in working class living standards promised by the false prophets of the capitalist democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe, including Solidarity. Capitalist restoration has produced a social disaster for the working class and the rise to power of right-wing and fascistic forces. Poland is one of the most unequal countries in Europe. A recent study titled Inequality in Poland found that official figures substantially underestimate the rise of inequality during the past 30 years. The top 10 percent income share increased from 23 percent to 40 percent and the top 1 percent income share from 4 percent to 14 percent between 1989 and 2015, the study concludes. Polands extreme nationalist, pro-NATO PiS government is warmongering and anti-Semitic. It has supported Washingtons ratcheting up of military tensions with Russia and welcomed the stationing of NATO forces near the neighboring Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, posing the constant danger of a conflict between nuclear powers. Last year, the PiS outlawed any mention of crimes committed by Poles against Jews during the Holocaust. Since then, a number of historians researching anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish pogroms in Poland have been purged from their jobs. At the Polish Independence Day celebration last November, prominent state officials, including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, marched alongside fascists from Poland and other European countries. The emerging opposition in the Polish working class to austerity and the PiS confirms the analysis made by the ICFI. Today, unlike the 1930s, far-right movements and governments do not have a mass base. But they are no less dangerous, because they are deliberately promoted by the state, the established parties, the media and sections of academia in response to the threat of a socialist movement of the working class. The developing movement of the working class must be consciously prepared. This requires the building of sections of the ICFI in Poland and across Eastern Europe to give the expanding struggles a genuinely socialist perspective and leadership. Nearly 3,000 teachers and support staff are conducting a one-day strike today in Sacramento, California. The Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) called the limited walkout after 92 percent of its members voted last month to authorize strike action in the state capital. A last-ditch mediation session Monday between district and SCTA officials ended without an agreement. The Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) employs 2,800 educators who teach 42,000 students. While teachers are determined to join the growing fight of educators throughout the state, the US and internationally, the SCTA and its parent organization, the California Teachers Association (CTA), want teachers to blow off steam while they maneuver with state Democrats who have spearheaded the assault on public education. The strike has been officially called because of the districts non-compliance with the terms of the last contract signed by the SCTA in 2017, which included an across-the-board pay increase for teachers, with most receiving a 3.5 percent raise. The contract also contained cuts to teacher health care benefits, which the union and school officials claimed would give the district more resources to hire support personnel and reduce class sizes. Predictably, these promises have never materialized. Citing a $35 million budget deficit, the district is calling for additional cuts and demanding that the cost savings from the health care cuts be used to address the budget shortfall. District and city officials have threatened a state takeover if the deficit is not addressed by next November. Sacrifices will have to be made, Democratic mayor and former state senate president Darrell Steinberg has insisted. Among the sacrifices will likely be teacher layoffs. In closed door sessions in February and March, the school board passed resolutions mandating the more than 150 layoffs. The SCTA sued the school district, not over the proposed layoffs, but for having unlawfully engaged in discussions regarding general budgetary matters in closed sessions, i.e., without the collaboration of the union. This is the third teacher walkout in California this year, and follows a six-day strike by 33,000 Los Angeles educators in January and the seven-day strike by 3,300 Oakland teachers that ended early last month. Both strikes were betrayed by the unions, which are now collaborating in the imposition of budget cuts, school closings, the expansion of charters, and in Oakland, the layoff of at least 257 educators. Sacramento teachers voted overwhelmingly in 2017 to walk out before an agreement between the union and the district was reached. But the union blocked the strike and is limiting the current action. The last time Sacramento teachers actually went on strike was 30 years ago, in 1989. The four other school employee unions have openly denounced teachers for daring to strike. After the authorization vote in March, Richard Owen, executive director of the United Professional Employees (UPE) Local 1, said, We have 100 percent votes saying thats the silliest, most selfish thing you could do to a district thats in these dire circumstances, he said. SEIU Local 1021 executive Ian Arnold said a strike would be devastating to our students, devastating to our staff, and would really hurt the region. No company would want to relocate to a region where the schools are failing. Despite the districts claims of financial distress, it confirmed on Monday that it would pay replacement teachers $500 each for crossing picket lines on Thursday. Even though Sacramento is a relatively small school district, the political implications of a protracted struggle are enormous. It would immediately set teachers on a collision course with the California Democratic Party, which has presided over decades of funding cuts to public education, making the state among the last in the country in per-pupil spending. Teacher salaries in Sacramento are among the worst in the state and rank fourth from the bottom when compared to comparable districts. Teachers must draw the lessons of the struggles of the last 14 months, beginning with the wildcat strikes by West Virginia teachers in February 2018, and build new organizations of struggle, controlled by the rank-and-file and independent of the unions. These committees must rally the broadest support among workers and youth to oppose all budget cuts and school closures and to mobilize the working class to fight to break the grip of the corporate and financial aristocracy, which has enriched itself by looting public education and other public assets. The fight to defend public education must be combined with the fight to defend all the social and democratic rights of the working class. Only last month, Sacramento police arrested 84 people protesting the murder of 22-year-old Stephon Clark, who was shot 20 times by Sacramento police officers. The district attorney ultimately decided not to bring charges against the two police officers involved, leading to demonstrations in the city involving thousands after Clarks death in March of last year. While teachers go on strike in Sacramento, more than 80 percent of Polands 400,000 teachers have launched an indefinite nationwide walkout. The Polish strike is part of an international struggle. This year alone, teachers have struck in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Iran and numerous other countries across the globe. The Socialist Equality Party (Australia) emphatically condemns the decision of the Ecuadorian government to end the political asylum granted to Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange, literally opening the door for British police to arrest him. The UK is holding Assange on trumped-up bail charges, and on an extradition request from the Trump administration, which is seeking to prosecute him for his role in Wikileaks lawful publishing activities. The claim by Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno that Assange had repeatedly violated international conventions and daily-life protocols is a transparent lie. The decision to hand over Assange to British authorities, paving the way for his extradition to the US, is a fundamental breach of international law and democratic rights. Moreno and his government stand condemned before history as stooges of US and British imperialism. Assange is now in grave danger. The Trump administration is pressing for his extradition to the US, where he will be indicted on fabricated charges and face a heavy jail term or even the death penalty. Assanges only crime has been to expose to the world the war crimes and diplomatic intrigues of US imperialism. The US is at the centre of a vast international conspiracy to silence Assange and Wikileaks. The fact that Washington has expended enormous resources to lay its hands on one individual is a warning that it is not just hell-bent on exacting revenge, but is seeking to suppress any independent voice as it prepares new crimes. The SEP calls on workers and youth around the world to take action to demand that the British government immediately release the Wikileaks publisher. The defence of Julian Assange is bound up with the broader fight to defend the democratic and social rights of the working class and to oppose the US-led drive to war. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has issued a thoroughly deceitful statement declaring her confidence in the British police and justice system. Governments, Labor and Coalition, have violated their responsibility to provide the legal assistance to which Assange is entitled as an Australian citizen. The attitude of all of them was summed up by Labor prime minister Julia Gillard who publicly branded Wikileaks as a criminal organization. The SEP demands that the Australian government end its collaboration with the Trump administration to railroad Assange before US courts. We will hold rallies Friday April 12 at 1 p.m. at the Martin Place Amphitheatre in Sydney, and at 4 p.m., outside the Victorian state library in Melbourne, to demand that the Australian government take immediate action to defend Assange. We appeal to all workers, young people and defenders of democratic rights to attend. For decades, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has maintained the narrative that the organization provides workers the opportunity to make a decent wage and receive full benefits, union protection, and a pension to provide support through retirement all while serving the broader public. In reality, the USPS has been in a process of gradual breakdown, facing constant pressure from the federal government and private competitors to reduce operating costs. The result has been austerity measures, degradation of working conditions, reduction of wages, gutting of employee benefit programs, and the slow death agony of a public service that reaches every community within the United States. In April 2018, Donald Trump announced the formation of a task force whose purpose was to evaluate the Postal Service for a drastic overhaul, stating that even full privatization would not be off the table. Early last December, the Treasury Department released a 70-page proposal, which focuses heavily on reducing costs. Citing personnel compensation as a major issue, it suggests wages should be lowered to a level comparable to that of market competitors like FedEx. The report goes so far as to consider barring postal workers from the right to bargain collectively for wages and removing the Postal Services historic mandate to provide universal public service. These measures would plunge thousands of workers to the edge of poverty and deprive working class communities of necessary services. Through all of this, the four postal unionsthe American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA)have either remained silent or occasionally feigned opposition while ultimately capitulating to the wishes of management. Once organizations that fought for workers interests, the unions have deteriorated into hollow husks and bureaucratized businesses that suppress the unity and strength of workers. The national officers of the unions receive compensation in the triple-figure range, which puts them in a completely different universe than the workers who sort and deliver the mail for a living. With workers separated by craft and within each job designation, workers get varied pay rates, benefits, paid holidays, protections, etc. Their voices are divided, and workers are turned against each other as the unions are more concerned with protecting the work under their jurisdiction and securing dues money rather than fighting for workers. Jurisdictional squabbles extend from the union bureaucrats who spend much of their time enforcing jurisdictional rules, to the work floor where individual workers feel forced to protect their hours from being taken by a worker in another craft. These union leaders have allowed the adoption of practices that are detrimental to the lives and well-being of USPS workers. This includes abandoning the right to strike and implementing a Kafkaesque system of different tiers that dictates the compensation and amount of work available based on what arbitrary category you fall into. The tiers are structured as follows: Career, Non-career, and Casual, with the Career tier further broken down to FTR, PTR, PTF, and NTFT positions. These translate to Full-Time Regular, Part-Time Regular, Part-Time Flexible and Non-Traditional Full-Time. Although workers within every category partake in almost identical work duties, each gets different pay and benefit compensation and a different number of guaranteed hours. The designations of part-time and full-time have nothing to do with hours worked, but only the different wages and benefits they receive. Full-time employees are typically not worked over 40 hours and are given 2 days off a week, while part-time employees are worked 6+ days in a row, sometimes up to 14 straight days, typically working between 30 and 50 hours a week with only one day of rest. Casual employees are hired on a temporary basis and generally for far fewer hours. They are given either a full-time work schedule for a fixed period (followed by removal from the position) or a permanent position that provides very few hours of work. This can be as little as two hours a day. Casuals also do not receive benefits and have no means of advancement. Non-career employees do not receive the benefits career employees do. That means stripping them of a pension fund, sick leave, work guarantees, and federal health insurance. They are also provided a significantly lower wage for the same job. Many non-career employees serve as full-time employees for years or even decades before conversion to full-time positions, if they see that at all. Non-career work guarantees range from two to four hours or one work day a week, which is not a concession but an insult. As a PSE/SSA (Postal Support Employee/Sales and Service Associate, which is a non-career clerk craft), I pay more in union dues than I do in state taxes. My shift-start times fluctuate from 2 a.m., 6 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 2 p.m., on any day of the week. Sometimes I have very little time between two shifts. Ive been forced to sleep parked in my car when given only a few hours between shifts just so I can make it in with at least some rest. Equipment is often damaged and unsafe, and the workplace is home to health risks like asbestos and lead. Relations between workers and management can become tense, with verbal arguments breaking out on the work floor periodically. Ive witnessed workers face vicious retaliation for standing up for their contracted rights. The USPS employs around 644,000 workers who have complete control over the day-to-day operations of the flow of mail within the country. This is why the bourgeoisie and their union hacks want to divide and stifle our voices. We are employed in plants and offices in virtually every community in the country. Our struggles are closely tied with other logistics and shipping workers, like FedEx, UPS and Amazon workers, as well as postal workers of other nations. There is no solution to our strife within the framework of the unions. If workers want change, they must organize independently of the union bureaucracy and combine all the different crafts and tiers into rank-and-file committees seeking to unite postal workers across the country and internationally. We need a voice that will defend the interests of all workers, the working class as a whole. I urge all workers to support the Socialist Equality Party and work to form these committees in their workplace. They will become the organs of struggle necessary to assert workers power and socialism in the days and years ahead. Egypt says it is backing the Sudanese people's choices in determining the future of their country soon after 30-year President Omar Al-Bashir was overthrown in a coup by the armed forces following months of protests. "Egypt is following closely and with great concern the current and accelerating developments the brotherly Sudan is passing through at this decisive moment in its modern historyand affirms its full support for the choices of the brotherly Sudanese people and their free will to shape the future of their country," the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Egypt called on the international community to back decisions made by the Sudanese people in what it said is a "critical historic phase" and to provide support for a peaceful political transition in its southern neighbour, the statement added. It also affirmed its "firm determination to preserve the deep ties" between the peoples of the two countries. Earlier on Thursday, Sudanese Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf said in an address on state television that Bashir, 75, was under arrest in a safe place and that a military council was now running the country. Al-Bashir had been in power for nearly 30 years and had ruled with an iron fist. Search Keywords: Short link: PANAMA CITY Posting a record in admissions, said festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron, the 8th IFF Panama wrapped Wednesday with the closing film The Sentence, screened in the presence of actor Edward James Olmos. Gustavo Pizzis Benzinho won best Ibero-American fiction film, Mauro Colombos Tierra Adentro Best Documentary, about the endangered jungle on the border between Panama and Colombia, and Sebastian and Rodrigo Barriusos Un Traductor, about Chernobyl victims being treated in 1989 Havana, won best film from Central America and the Caribbean, sponsored by Copa Airlines, Revista K and Master Card respectively. Related stories Ana Bustamante's 'Asfixia' Wins IFF Panama's 1st Fipresci Prize 'Benzinho,' 'Tierra Adentro,' 'Un Traductor' Win 8th IFF Panama In the 5th Primera Mirada, IFF Panamas pix-in-post sidebar, Ana Elena Tejeras Panquiaco scooped a $10,000 cash prize and a trip to Cannes Film Market and Fernando F. Blanco Rivas Por eso vengo al rio a $5,000 prize. The sidebar screened five films from Central America and the Caribbean. Panquiaco, about Cebaldo a reincarnation of the original indigenous tribesman who showed Spains Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the way to the Pacific Ocean will engage Panamanian audiences because of its exploration of national identity, said director Tejera. A documentary about a true-life love story between the Dominican Republic and Syria will also attract attention because it casts a new light on two parts of the world that have been vilified by some politicians Latin America and the Middle East. With talent at a premium, festivals which act a showcase in parts of the world little covered by international media are acquiring an added attraction. Primera Mirada juror Andrew Hevia, VP at Fabula US, attended IFF Panama for the second year running. He said he considers that the fest offers an excellent chance to get a firsthand glimpse of upcoming talent from the region. Story continues Edward James Olmos emphasized the importance of festivals such as IFF Panama precisely because of Donald Trumps unprecedented onslaught against Latino communities. The opportunity has never been stronger for the Latino community in this planet to express itself to the fullest. But that also generates a reaction. Right now huge rocks are being thrown at the culture. In such a disgraceful way, its inhumane, he added. Olmos has started the Youth Cinema Project in California which aims to teach young people from underprivileged communities. He says that no art form influences the unconscious mind so powerfully as film. Ana Isabel Bustamentes La Asfixia about the desaparecidos during the Guatemalan Civil War, won IFF Panamas FIipresci prize for best film, chosen from entries in the Stories from Central America and the Caribbean section. The new Fipresci prize underlined the rising international recognition of the fest, and is seen by the fests organizers as a first step to test the viability of organizing an official selection. Ortega Heilbron was particularly satisfied by the audiences embracing of films from Panama and the rest of Central America and the Caribbean and the high turnout for Q&A sessions with filmmakers including a packed audience for the Q&A after the screening of Roma with the pics lead actor, Yalitza Aparicio, and production designer, Eugenio Caballero. Aparicio took Panama by storm. Panamanians thronged to see her; during her stay she was offered the keys to the city, viewed as an icon of hope by Panamas indigenous communities as was evident in the questions she received during the Q&A session. There was massive excitement about Yalitzas presence, commented Ortega Heilbron, who added: She herself was amazed by the reaction. I told her: You have created an awareness of cinema in this country that didnt exist before. People know there is a film festival because of you. The 8th IFF Panama was marked by several new ventures including the Locarno Industry Academy, the result of a three-year partnership with the Locarno Film Festival. For the 2020 edition the fest is launching a $15,000 fund, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, for women filmmakers from Central America and the Caribbean, with two awards one for development, the other for a work-in-progress. The winning films must have a social theme such as gender, race, human rights etc. The festival also hopes to strengthen its joint venture with Copa Airlines which has an IFF Panama channel on its flights that screens selected films from the fest. The four films with the highest number of views in the first year were Salsipuedes (Panama) , Carpinteros (Dominican Republic), Rei de Once (Argentina) and Rara (Chile). At its closing press conference the fest announced the launch of a new fund, Su Mirada (Her Gaze), sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, which will grant $15,000 annually over the next five years to women filmmakers from Central America and the Caribbean, with two awards one for development the other for a work-in-progress. The winning films must have a social theme such as gender, race, human rights etc. Although this amount may seem modest it can make a vital difference in this region, where filmmakers often have to get blood from a stone to get their films made and has little development funding. One powerful example is Costa Ricas Antonella Sudasassi who financed her first feature El despertar de las hormigas with the aid of a $40,000 grant from the Fondo del Fauno. The pic premiered in Berlin and screened in Malaga and Costa Rica, where it won best film. Sudasassi now plans to shoot a feature documentary about older Costa Rican women talking about their sexuality which will complete a trilogy of films all with the same title. The underlying theme linking the three films is based on the idea that ants are a metaphor for women in Costa Rican society, who on the one hand sustain a matriarchal society through their hard work, while also supporting machismo through their own attitudes and traditions. Women filmmakers and talent made a powerful mark on this years edition. In addition to Ana Elena Tejera, Aparicio and Sudasassi, Mexican helmer Lila Aviles and Uruguayan helmer Lucia Garibalidi screened their debut features The Chambermaid and The Sharks respectively, amongst many others. The 8th edition also marked a new phase for the fest due to the recent appointment of the fests artistic director, Diana Sanchez, as Toronto senior director for film. The promotion at Toronto obliges Sanchez to restructure her work with IFF Panama becoming an adviser, but both she and Ortega Heilbron are confident that the fests existing curatorial team is ready for this new challenge. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We must demand more from our government officials, Bob Iger said tonight at the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance tribute dinner. I want to hear a pitch that isnt grounded in the contempt of others, the Disney boss added passionately in a call for tolerance in action in America and around the world. We must once again renounce and reject hate in all forms, the 2019 Humanitarian Award winner told the crowd of industry heavyweights at the Beverly Hilton. Each one of us has the obligation to be part of the solution. Related stories Avengers: Infinity War Leads Superhero-Filled Blockbuster Tournament: The Data Behind The Dollars On a night where the legacy of the Holocaust and the vile scourge of discrimination and rising anti-Semitism were lamented again and again, Donald Trumps was never mentioned by name but clearly implied. Asserting that Hitler would have loved social media for its echo chamber effect, Iger called out Democrats and Republicans alike in warning against the disappearance of civility in public discourse and the transformation of the common ground of democracy into scorched Earth. For a media giant chief who has repeatedly publicly stated that he is not interested in running for the Presidency next year, Iger sure sounded like a voice of more than just Tinseltown leadership. When it comes to giving, its not just giving money, but giving of yourself, said Jeffrey Katzenberg in remarks about Iger on Wednesday from the stage. Bob gives as a friend, whenever I asked he gave except one time, the WndrCo CEO and to0-tier Democratic donor teased. No matter how much I begged Bob, he just wasnt willing to run for President of the United States. Our loss. He promised me he would never bring that up again, particularly with my wife in the room, Iger responded when it came his turn to speak. Not politically correct, he said to laughs from the ballroom. (Iger is contractually obligated to Disney until 2021.) Story continues Iger may not be seeking high office, the awards ceremony and dinner this evening was certainly a media Congress of Vienna. The gathering saw the Disney commander-in-chief feted by industry chieftains who put their smiles forward and sheathed their usual swords. Disney corner offices alum Katzenberg, Paramounts Jim Gianopulos, Disney Studios boss Alan Horn (who is co-hosting a pricey fundraiser next week with Iger for Senate Dems up for reelection in 2020), and NBCUniversals Ron Meyer were in attendance as well as serving as chairs for the dinner that raise a record $3.6 million. L.A. Olympics leader Casey Wasserman, CAAs Richard Lovett, Peter Chernin, Brian Glazer (seen chatting with WMEs Ari Emanuel, Ron Howard and Disneys now-largest-shareholder Rupert Murdoch) all were listed as chairs of the event. Former Warner Bros kingpin Kevin Tsujihara was also listed as a chair, but that was because the Wiesenthal Centers invites had been printed before the ex-CEO resigned his gig under misconduct allegations on March 18. Emanuel, Californias senior Sen. Diane Feinstein, Interim CBS CEO Joe Ianniello, David Geffen, Star Wars overlord Kathleen Kennedy and UTAs Jeremy Zimmer were listed as co-chairs of the event, priced at $1,500-$250,000 a ticket. Ex-HBO chief Richard Plepler, super lawyer Daniel Petrocelli, Will Smith and Jade Pinkett Smith, J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath, healthcare exec and recent Trump fundraiser host Lee Sampson, ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos and spouse Ambassador Nicole Avant were also among others on that co-chair list. Like a number of the chairs and co-chairs, Sarandos was not present at tonights Beverly Hilton event for the Disney+ principal. However, dont read too much streaming rivalry into that Sarandos had long-scheduled business in South America this week, I hear. With moving words that brought many in the ballroom to tears, also honored Wednesday with Medals of Honor were Rabbi Jeffrey S. Myers of Pittsburghs Tree of Life Synagogue, immigration activist Florence Phillips, and Holocaust remembrance activist Kurt Kleinmann. Although his voice was strained at times, Wiesenthal trustee Katzenberg delivered the introduction of the evenings MC Jimmy Kimmel, as well as that clearly heartfelt tribute to Iger later in the evening. Of course, the dinner had a healthy dose of humor too. The last time I hosted an awards show, that show decided they didnt need a host and the ratings went up, ex-Oscar frontman Kimmel said soon after taking the stage. The ABC late-night host further ribbed the crowd by noting that his boss was joining the likes of Les Moonves and Harvey Weinstein among former honorees for the Wiesenthal Center. Mistakes were made, some as recently as last year, but lets move on, Kimmel noted with deadpan delivery to big laughs from the well-heeled. Tonights dinner comes literally hours before tomorrows anticipated Disney Investors Day. The afternoon shindig will see Iger and other execs from the expanded Mouse House unveil details of their upcoming Disney+ streaming service. Those details could prove a partial blueprint to the next big thing for the small screen. Even with Apple entering the streaming wars this fall, the Disney arsenal of its vault, Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel plus new offerings like the potential Hawkeye series presents possibly the greatest challenge to Netflix and Amazon when it debuts later this year. Stripping off Disney properties from the Reed Hastings-run streamer over the past several months, the Burbank-based company has recently become even more muscular with its completed $71.3 billion acquisition of a slew of Fox assets from Murdoch and his sons. Like the company he has led since 2005, Iger has never been short on ambition, to quote his note to Disney staff upon the Fox merger taking that took effect on March 19. Certainly, with a market capitalization of $210 billion as of today, that ambition has been on point in the multi-armed companys rapid growth and market share in the past decade of Igers reign over the film studios, ABC network, cable units like ESPN and now FX and the global theme parks he surveys. Which, in the business of manufacturing happiness, as Iger put it tonight, may be a step or two unto itself towards the compassion our world needs right now. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. (Original Caption) Orlando, Fla.: Theodore Bundy watches intently during the third day of jury selection at his trial in Orlando for the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. When we think about the horrific crimes of Ted Bundy, we tend to think about them in the most extreme terms possible. After all, this is a man whose crimes were described by the judge presiding over his final trial as "extremely wicked, shockingly evil, and vile" (yes, that's where the new movie gets its name). But as is so often the case with high-profile, incredibly salacious crime stories, the thing that finally tripped up Bundy wasn't one of his gruesome crimes - it was a car. By the time Bundy was captured for the final time, he had already been arrested and imprisoned once. In 1976, he was convicted of the kidnapping and assault of Utah telephone operator Carol DaRonch and was imprisoned in Utah before being extradited to Colorado to stand trial for another suspected crime. While in jail in Glenwood Springs, CO, Bundy assembled an escape plan. Slowly but carefully, he created a hole in the jail's ceiling, while simultaneously losing a significant amount of weight. On Dec. 30, 1977, Bundy made his escape, becoming a fugitive for the second time. He wound up on the FBI's infamous Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, due to the nature of his crimes and the likelihood of his still being a real danger to the public. After traveling through several states, Bundy wound up in Tallahassee, FL, where he began committing his final string of crimes in January 1978, breaking into a sorority house at Florida State University and attacking several women there, some of whom did not survive. He continued his Florida crime spree, but upon realizing that his funds were running low and suspecting the cops were on his trail, Bundy attempted to flee in February. It wasn't a big showdown that got Bundy caught, though. It wasn't even the aftermath of one of his grisly crimes. It was, ultimately, car theft that started the series of events that led to Bundy's final capture. Bundy had stolen a car to flee Tallahassee when he suspected the authorities were closing in on him, and it was this action that got him caught. In the early-morning hours of Feb. 15, Bundy was stopped near Pensacola by police officer David Lee near the Alabama state line after a "wants and warrants" check alerted the officer that the Volkswagen Beetle Bundy was driving was reported as stolen. Officer Lee attempted to arrest Bundy, but Bundy moved quickly, tripped up Lee, and tried to run away. Lee was able to fire warning shots - not shooting to kill - and pursued him. The two men struggled for a few moments, with Bundy attempting to gain control over Lee's gun, but Lee prevailed in the end. He was able to take Bundy into custody. Reportedly, Lee heard Bundy mutter "I wish you had killed me" as he was taking him into custody. The subsequent trial process saw Bundy go through multiple murder trials and, eventually, get sentenced to death. We wonder if this anticlimactic finale to a long-running fugitive chase will make it into Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile when the Zac Efron-led movie hits theaters later in 2019. The Pitch: Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) is a self-made tech mogul and also a self-made boss from hell, with nobody getting it worse than her poor assistant April (Issa Rae). But when Jordan messes with the wrong magic-loving little girl, she finds herself back in her 13-year-old body (Black-ishs Marsai Martin). April quickly discovers whats happened, and although she revels in Jordans predicament, she also pledges to help her out especially considering that Jordans app development company has a major pitch due to their biggest client, an insufferable millionaire man-baby (Mikey Day). A quick call to child services from a pissed-off neighbor results in Jordan having to enroll in middle school, while April tries to keep things at the company from spinning out of control. At school, Jordan quickly finds herself consigned to the nerd table, where she tries to mete out some hard-won life lessons. Meanwhile, April discovers that shes a pretty good boss, mainly because she isnt completely awful to her co-workers, unlike Jordan. (A few free carbs go a long way!) As she and April grow closer, Jordan starts to wonder if maybe, just maybe, the persona shes employed all this time is actually bad? A Little Confused: While Little reunites Hall with Girls Trip co-writer Tracy Oliver (who penned this script with director Tina Gordon), its Martin who conceived of the film in the first place. Shes the reason Black-ish creator Kenya Barris is a producer on the film. And its the tension between those two sensibilities the raunch of Girls Trip and the more family-friendly vibes of Barris and Martins previous work that leaves Little stuck in the middle. You can almost hear the gaps in the PG-13 script where the dirtier jokes or swearier words are held back for weaker tea. Its no accident that the films best moments are also its most scandalous. Martin aggressively flirting with her hot teacher (Justin Hartley) or with Jordans incredibly sweet booty call (Luke James) is uncomfortable, but its also funny, partly due to Martins cocked-eyebrow swagger, and mostly to the horrified reactions she provokes. While a fair amount of the jokes fall flat, the few that center around adults deciding to whoop Martins bellicose tyke produce some of the films biggest laughs. Then again, building an entire movie around those gags at least a movie that would also do big business with audiences might well be impossible. And thats exactly the kind of corner that Little paints itself into. Story continues Middle School Muddle: This identity crisis is felt in the films plotting as well, as Little whips between plotlines set at the middle school, at Jordans company, and around her lavish apartment. (Its chic-and-sleek decor is a Hollywood tip-off that whoever lives there has a lack of love in their life.) And just as Jordan can never commit to being in a real relationship with another person romantic or otherwise Little never commits to what kind of movie its going to be. Despite a distressing general lack of Issa Rae who walks away with the film the school scenes hold the most promise. After all, what adult doesnt wake up sweating bullets at the thought of having to go back to middle school? The film even opens with a kind of reverse Yup, thats me gimmick that sees the actual 13-year-old Jordan humiliated in front of the entire school, a moment that sets her on her present-day course, lighting a fire in her belly as it hardens her heart. But Littles failure to commit means that the middle school plot is still underserved. Even the reasons that these scenes work so well have more to do with Jordans nerdy compatriots played by Thalia Tran, JD McCrary, and Tucker Meek than with the rest of the film, or even Martin herself. Shes a great, assured performer, but this role is a big one, and shes not quite up to the task. The rest of the kids, however, absolutely crush their smaller, less demanding roles. Issa Rae of Light: This will come as no surprise whatsoever to fans of her HBO show Insecure, but Rae is just wonderful here. Even in a formulaic studio comedy like this one, her sheer star power lights up the screen. (Has Congress looked into using her smile as a form of clean renewable energy? Because they should.) Whether shes cowering from Hall, alternatively chilling or bickering with Martin, or flirting with her cute co-worker (Tone Bell), Rae simply exudes charm. She cant entirely rescue her scenes many of which are ploddingly paced in that Apatowian funny people muttering under their breath kind of way but she keeps them above water. She manages to elevate one particular moment, an impromptu public sing-off between her and Martin, despite the fact that it comes out of nowhere, buried by some rushed editing. The best way to spot a true movie star is when theyre great even in subpar material. With Little, Rae aces that test. The Verdict: According to Martin, the reason she wanted to make Little was that she so rarely saw people like herself on the screen. By that measure, the movie is a success. Fingers crossed for many more films like it in the coming years. And hopefully those movies will have an easier time being just one thing at a time, instead of trying to do everything at once and missing the mark in the way Little ultimately does. The more films like Little that show up on the big screen, the likelier that is to happen. Wheres It Playing? Wide release beginning April 12th. Trailer: In a decision issued Thursday, Geoffrey Rush prevailed in the defamation lawsuit against Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph that he filed in 2017. In a strongly worded judgment published by The Guardian, Federal Court Justice Michael Wigney said that the Telegraph had published a recklessly irresponsible piece of sensational journalism of the worst kind. Wigney also said there are a number of aspects to the evidence which raise significant issues about the credibility of Rushs accuser, who Wigney called prone to exaggeration and embellishment. Rush has been awarded a minimum of $850,000 AUD approximately $610,000 USD in initial damages, with further damages to be determined at a later date, according to ABC Australia. Also Read: 'Orange Is the New Black' Star Yael Stone Accuses Geoffrey Rush of Sexual Misconduct Rush told reporters outside the courthouse that there were no winners in this case. It was extremely distressing for everyone involved, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Representatives for Rush did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap. The Telegraph also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rush filed the lawsuit in December 2017 after the Daily Telegraph published a statement from the Sydney Theatre Company, which said it had received a complaint alleging that Mr Geoffrey Rush had engaged in inappropriate behaviour during a 2015-2016 production of King Lear. The actor said the article contained false, pejorative and demeaning claims. He is seeking damages of up to $20 million. Also Read: Jussie Smollett Doubters See Validation in False Report Charge In December, Orange Is the New Black star Yael Stone accused Rush of sexual misconduct committed during a production of The Diary of a Madman eight years ago. Rush strongly denied the accusation in a statement provided to the New York Times, but said, I sincerely and deeply regret if I have caused her any distress. Read original story Geoffrey Rush Wins Defamation Lawsuit Against Australias Daily Telegraph At TheWrap Kanye West has had plenty of nice things to say about President Donald Trump in recent years, but that doesnt mean hes a Republican, according to wife Kim Kardashian West. He doesnt represent either side, she told Vogue for the magazines May cover story. But he doesnt want to be told what he should be. It can be confusing. I get it. The one thing that I respect so much is that he is who he is, no matter what anyone tries to tell him to do. She said shes had to learn how to move past it all. I can be sitting there crying: OH, MY GOD! TAKE OFF THE RED HAT! Because he really is the sweetest person with the biggest heart. I stopped caring, though, she told Vogue. Because I used to care so much. I was making it such an issue in our relationship. And in my life. It gave me so much anxiety. (Elsewhere in the story, Kim, 38, reiterated, I share every opinion that I have and let him know when I think somethings wrong.) In recent months Kim has become one of the countrys most visible lobbyists for criminal justice reform, personally interceding in the case of Alice Johnson, a nonviolent drug offender imprisoned in Alabama. Kim joined other activists in pushing Trump to grant her clemency, which he did last year. So grateful to @realDonaldTrump, Jared Kushner & to everyone who has showed compassion & contributed countless hours to this important moment for Ms. Alice Marie Johnson, Kim tweeted afterward. Her commutation is inspirational & gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance. Husband Kanye, 41, has not been as political in terms of policy but has been happy to spend time with the historically divisive Trump, who is both beloved and despised. President Donald Trump (left) and Kanye West. Inset: Kim Kardashian West. | Seth Wenig/AP/REX/Shutterstock; Inset: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Trump is on his heros journey right now, Kanye said during an Oval Office visit in October, in a rambling visit watched rapt by reporters. Speaking of his fondness for Trumps Make America Great Again hats, Kanye said, It was something about when I put this hat on, it made me feel like superman. You made a superman. Thats my favorite super hero. And you made a superman cape for me. Story continues Kanye said then that he looks up to Trump as one of the American industry guys who helped remind him of his masculinity. You know, my dad and my mom separated so I didnt have a lot of male energy in my home and also Im married to a family that, you know not a lot of male energy going on, he said. Its beautiful though. But theres times where, you know, its something about, you know I love Hillary. I love everyone, right? But the campaign [slogan] Im with her just didnt make me feel as a guy, that didnt get to see my dad all the time, like a guy that could play catch with his son. Days earlier Kanye had hosted Saturday Night Live where he wore a MAGA hat that he said hed been advised not to keep on. They bullied me backstage, he claimed. Follow your heart and stop following your mind, he said on SNL. Thats how were controlled. Thats how were programmed. If you want the world to move forward, try love. Thank yall for giving me this platform. All of this was after he tweeted last April: You dont have to agree with trump [sic] but the mob cant make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I dont agree with everything anyone does. Thats what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought. Kanye previously visited with Trump at Trump Tower in New York after the 2016 election. Weve been friends for a long time, Trump said at the time. Trumps then-spokeswoman told the New York Times, The meeting was requested by Kanye and we were delighted to host him. They had a very positive and productive conversation. Pamela Anderson reacted with shock and dismay on Thursday after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested and removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and taken into custody by British authorities.The former Baywatch star, who has said she has a romantic kind of relationship with Assange, denounced the British government as Americas bitch.I am in shock. I couldnt hear clearly what he said? He looks very bad. How could you Equador ? (Because he exposed you). How could you UK. ? Of course you are Americas bitch and you need a diversion from your idiotic Brexit bulls, Anderson said in a tweet Thursday morning.Also Read: Pamela Anderson Trashes MeToo Movement: 'Feminism Can Go Too Far' (Video)And the USA ? This toxic coward of a President, she added of President Trump. He needs to rally his base? You are selfish and cruel. You have taken the entire world backwards. You are devils and liars and thieves. And you will ROTT. And WE WILL RISEAs he languished for years in legal limbo at the Ecuadorian embassy, Anderson has long been one of Assanges most ferocious and high-profile supporters in the United States and visited him at the Embassy multiple times in 2017. She has even teased a possible romantic connection between two.Hes definitely an interesting person, and theres definitely a romantic kind of connection cause its a romantic struggle, she told TMZ founder and Fox News host Harvey Levin on OBJECTified last August. We have this closeness hes not close to people like he is to me.Also Read: WilkiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrested in LondonAll told, Assange spent nearly seven years holed up at the embassy in an attempt to fight extradition to Sweden on charges of rape. Assange consistently denied the accusation and the charges were dropped in 2017. He was ultimately booked on the lesser charge of jumping bail, providing the pretext for his arrest by Scotland Yard after Ecuador withdrew its offer of asylum.During the 2016 presidential election, Assange and his WikiLeaks played a key role in revealing hacked emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. It remains an open question whether the United States will seek his extradition and what charges he may face.Read original story Pamela Anderson Denounces UK After Julian Assange Arrest: You Are Americas Bitch At TheWrap Pamela Anderson reacted with shock and dismay on Thursday after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested and removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and taken into custody by British authorities. The former Baywatch star, who has said she has a romantic kind of relationship with Assange, denounced the British government as Americas bitch. I am in shock. I couldnt hear clearly what he said? He looks very bad. How could you Equador ? (Because he exposed you). How could you UK. ? Of course you are Americas bitch and you need a diversion from your idiotic Brexit bulls, Anderson said in a tweet Thursday morning. Also Read: Pamela Anderson Trashes #MeToo Movement: 'Feminism Can Go Too Far' (Video) And the USA ? This toxic coward of a President, she added of President Trump. He needs to rally his base? You are selfish and cruel. You have taken the entire world backwards. You are devils and liars and thieves. And you will ROTT. And WE WILL RISE As he languished for years in legal limbo at the Ecuadorian embassy, Anderson has long been one of Assanges most ferocious and high-profile supporters in the United States and visited him at the Embassy multiple times in 2017. She has even teased a possible romantic connection between two. Hes definitely an interesting person, and theres definitely a romantic kind of connection cause its a romantic struggle, she told TMZ founder and Fox News host Harvey Levin on OBJECTified last August. We have this closeness hes not close to people like he is to me. Also Read: WilkiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrested in London All told, Assange spent nearly seven years holed up at the embassy in an attempt to fight extradition to Sweden on charges of rape. Assange consistently denied the accusation and the charges were dropped in 2017. He was ultimately booked on the lesser charge of jumping bail, providing the pretext for his arrest by Scotland Yard after Ecuador withdrew its offer of asylum. During the 2016 presidential election, Assange and his WikiLeaks played a key role in revealing hacked emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chief John Podesta. It remains an open question whether the United States will seek his extradition and what charges he may face. Read original story Pamela Anderson Denounces UK After Julian Assange Arrest: You Are Americas Bitch At TheWrap A pregnant mom is facing 60 days in jail after she was issued a citation for letting her 3-year-old son urinate in the parking lot of a Georgia gas station, according to CBS affiliate WRDW. Brooke Johns was driving through Augusta, Georgia, on March 29 when her toddler son Cohen blurted out that he had to relieve himself sooner rather than later, Johns the news station. I was like, Well hold on! and hes like, No! Ive got to pee! Ive got to really pee, Johns recalled to the outlet. And Im like, Baby, theres nowhere for me to go. And he says, Momma, Im about to pee in my pants! Johns said she quickly pulled over into a gas station parking lot, but did not have time to get Cohen who is around the age when the potty-training process continues to a toilet. He was peeing before his pants were even all the way down, so obviously he had to go, said Johns, who added that she was unable to carry her son because of her pregnancy. The mom, of Beech Island, South Carolina, told WRDW that she did her best to shield her son as he relieved himself, but for a Richmond County Sheriffs deputy who watched the incident unfold, her efforts did not suffice. Johns told WRDW that the deputy approached and asked her to take Cohen to the bathroom, which posed a problem: If she rushed her son to the toilet and it was already in use, shed risk him peeing on the gas station floor. What if I would have ran in the bathroom and someone had been in there? What was I going to let him do? Pee on the floor of the gas station? Johns said. The deputy issued her a disorderly conduct citation, which WRDW shared online. The citation reads, Subject allowed her 2 yo male child to urinate in the parking lot. I observed the males genitals and the urination. Public restrooms are offered at the location. Story continues The Richmond County Sheriffs Office declined to comment when reached by PEOPLE. RELATED: 4-Year-Old Adorably Asks for His Pregnant Mom to Delay Her Labor and Come Home: We Need You, Mama Johns told WRDW she is headed to court on April 30, just before her due date, because shed rather contest the citation while pregnant instead of with a newborn daughter. According to Title 3 of the county ordinance, she is facing up to 60 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. In a Facebook post, Johns recounted the incident and said she was standing near her open car door when it happened. It isnt like I had him in the wide open for the entire world to see, she wrote. Yes, I should have taken him to the bathroom. Any other day I would have, but this day I didnt have a chance to run inside The only thing that was visible are his legs and his pee hitting the ground. Royal dad-to-be Prince Harry learned about the challenges facing young people when he visited a youth center in London on Thursday. As wife Meghan Markle stayed behind at their new home of Frogmore Cottage as they prepare to welcome their first child later this month, Harry, 34, watched teens take part in activities and workshops showcasing the new facilities for the charity, OnSide Youth Zones. He talked with members about the serious concerns in young peoples lives, such as the rising levels of knife crime in London. Created by the organization which is building 21st century youth facilities across the U.K. the Future Youth Zone provides a safe environment where young people can gain confidence, develop their key skills and build their aspirations. The royal was on-hand to open the new center, but he used the occasion to join members as they shared their perspectives and experiences of knife crime. The scourge of the issue has been rising in the U.K. with an increase in attacks especially in London. Today the forum, which was set up in 2001 to provide a formal platform for 13- to 19-year-olds to express their views on issues affecting their communities, has a local say and influence on policy makers. Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock Prince Harry | Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock Prince Harry | Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock Harrys fact-finding visit is part of his ongoing work via the Royal Foundation to help find answers to youth violence that young people themselves wish to see. His office says that Harry believes that every child should be given the opportunity to fulfill their potential, regardless of their background or situation, and regularly supports projects that enable children and young people to build their skills and confidence. Prince Harry | Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Prince Harry | Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Harry saw the various activities for kids at the center, including ping pong and a rock climbing wall. This is the third time he has visited an OnSide Youth Zone the last time was with Meghan during their trip to the Wirral, in northwest England in January. Prince Harry | Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Prince Harry | Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Cant get enough of PEOPLEs Royals coverage? Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! On Thursday, Meghan and Harry also announced their private plans around the birth of their baby. The palace will announce when the Duchess of Sussex is in labor. Meghan and Harry will then likely announce their babys arrival on their new Instagram account, @sussexroyal. Story continues Royal fans will get to see the happy couple with their new baby soon after the birth. Within a few days after welcoming their first child, Meghan and Harry will take part in a photo op with their new baby on the grounds of Windsor Castle. Prince Harry | Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very grateful for the goodwill they have received from people throughout the United Kingdom and around the world as they prepare to welcome their baby, the statement reads. Their Royal Highnesses have taken a personal decision to keep the plans around the arrival of their baby private. The Duke and Duchess look forward to sharing the exciting news with everyone once they have had an opportunity to celebrate privately as a new family. Scientist Who Helped Take First Black Hole Photo Is Only 29: Meet Katie Bouman Scientists on Wednesday revealed the first-ever photo taken of a black hole but one woman played an essential role in capturing the image. According to the Washington Post, Katie Bouman, a 29-year-old computer scientist, created the algorithm that made it possible to assemble the photo. Telescopes from researchers across the world had gathered data from the vicinity of the black hole, but a sophisticated algorithm was needed to create a single, accurate photo from the massive amount of data. Bouman is a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, reported the Post. She had been working on the algorithm for almost six years, beginning when she was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Watching in disbelief as the first image I ever made of a black hole was in the process of being reconstructed, she wrote on social media on Wednesday. I have an interest in how can we see things or measure things that are thought to be invisible to us, Bouman told the Post. And how can we come up with unique ways to merge the instrumentation and algorithms to get at measuring things that you cant measure with standard instruments. RELATED: Internet Hilariously Reacts to First-Ever Black Hole Photo: The Literal Embodiment of Evil Bouman was commended by many on Wednesday, with some heralding her as a role model for women in science and math fields. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris praised Bouman on Twitter, writing, Katie Bouman proved women in STEM dont just make the impossible, possible, but make history while doing it. Actress Olivia Munn also chimed in, sharing, We got the very first photo of a black hole because of an amazing team led by MIT grad student Katie Bouman, who helped create the algorithm that made the image possible. Congratulations and THANK YOU, Katie! Youre an inspiration to so many people. Story continues RELATED VIDEO: 56-Year-Old NASA Astronaut to Become Oldest Woman in Space In the image released Wednesday, the black hole is outlined by an orange ring that is actually emission from hot gas swirling near its event horizon. Black holes have extremely strong gravity, meaning anything that enters its event horizon, or point of no-return is swallowed up, according to NASA. The image, which has been praised by scientists as an amazing accomplishment, was captured by an international network of radio telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope, NASA said. RELATED: Over 50 Percent of Astronauts Have Herpes Viruses Reactivate in Space The black hole sits at the center of galaxy Messier 87, located nearly 55 million light-years away from Earth, and has a mass 6.5 billion times bigger than the sun. This is an amazing accomplishment by the EHT team, said Paul Hertz, director of the astrophysics division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, according to NASA. Years ago, we thought we would have to build a very large space telescope to image a black hole. By getting radio telescopes around the world to work in concert like one instrument, the EHT team achieved this, decades ahead of time. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday in London after Ecuador president Lenin Moreno withdrew its offer of asylum in its embassy in the London capital.The U.S. Justice Department announced that it is seeking extradition so that the 47-year-old Australian national can face a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to help break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.According to the indictment, in March 2010 Assange conspired with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications.Manning, who had access to the computers, downloaded thousands of classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks in one of the largest breaches of classified information in U.S. history.Also Read: Pamela Anderson Denounces UK After Julian Assange Arrest: 'You Are America's Bitch'Assanges lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, tweeted that her client has been arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request.In a tweet, WikiLeaks said Ecuador has illegally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. In a subsequent tweet, the organization said: Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanize, delegitimize and imprison him.Assange has been holed up in a back room of the embassy for nearly seven years after seeking asylum there to avoid extradition to Sweden on a rape accusation which he denied and was later dropped.Moreno said his country had reached its limit with Assange in a statement reported by the BBC that cited WikiLeaks January 2019 release of secret Vatican documents. This and other publications have confirmed the worlds suspicion that Mr Assange is still linked to WikiLeaks and therefore involved in interfering in internal affairs of other states, Moreno said.Also Read: Hollywood Is Overpaying for the Wrong Talent, New Tongal CEO James DeJulio SaysBritish Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Thursday confirmed that Assange was in the custody of British authorities and rightly facing justice in the UK.According to London Metropolitan Police, Assange had been arrested on a June 29, 2012, warrant issued for failing to surrender to the court.Assange emerged as an important figure in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, including how WikiLeaks obtained emails stolen from Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and Democratic groups.Read original story WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrested in London At TheWrap WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday in London after Ecuador president Lenin Moreno withdrew its offer of asylum in its embassy in the London capital. The U.S. Justice Department announced that it is seeking extradition so that the 47-year-old Australian national can face a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to help break a password to a classified U.S. government computer. According to the indictment, in March 2010 Assange conspired with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications. Manning, who had access to the computers, downloaded thousands of classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks in one of the largest breaches of classified information in U.S. history. Also Read: Pamela Anderson Denounces UK After Julian Assange Arrest: 'You Are America's Bitch' Assanges lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, tweeted that her client has been arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request. In a tweet, WikiLeaks said Ecuador has illegally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. In a subsequent tweet, the organization said: Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanize, delegitimize and imprison him. Assange has been holed up in a back room of the embassy for nearly seven years after seeking asylum there to avoid extradition to Sweden on a rape accusation which he denied and was later dropped. Moreno said his country had reached its limit with Assange in a statement reported by the BBC that cited WikiLeaks January 2019 release of secret Vatican documents. This and other publications have confirmed the worlds suspicion that Mr Assange is still linked to WikiLeaks and therefore involved in interfering in internal affairs of other states, Moreno said. Story continues Also Read: Hollywood Is Overpaying for the Wrong Talent, New Tongal CEO James DeJulio Says British Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Thursday confirmed that Assange was in the custody of British authorities and rightly facing justice in the UK. According to London Metropolitan Police, Assange had been arrested on a June 29, 2012, warrant issued for failing to surrender to the court. Assange emerged as an important figure in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, including how WikiLeaks obtained emails stolen from Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and Democratic groups. Read original story WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrested in London At TheWrap The New York Post published a denunciation of Rep. Ilhan Omar on Thursday with a front page editorial calling out her remarks that appeared to trivialize the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Rep Ilhan Omar: 9/11 Was Some People Did Something,' blared the front cover, which included a full image of the former Twin Towers on fire in the moments before they collapsed. Heres your something 2,977 people dead by terrorism, it continued. Also Read: Sean Giancola Named Publisher and CEO of New York Post How pathetic: A member of Congress cant acknowledge what happened on one of the most horrific days in US history, a piece from the Post Editorial board continued. Omars cavalier brushing off of the murder of thousands of innocents on 9/11 should shock all Americans, Muslims included. The latest Omar imbroglio was sparked several days ago after after snippets of footage from her speech to a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fundraiser last month went viral. The most highly-charged moment came when she characterized 9/11 as a moment when some people did something. Omar who downplayed terrorism instead used the moment to talk about how Muslim civil liberties had been curtailed. Heres the truth. For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, Im tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it, she said. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. In its editorial, the Post said Omar was hiding from the facts of that day. [It is] vital to note that the terrorists acted in the name of Islam as self-described jihadists in a war against America, Israel and the West. To call them merely some people is to deny a cancer festering in the world Muslim community, it noted. No one expects Muslims to hide after an attack by Islamist terrorists. No group should be blamed for the deeds of a few of its members. But defeating terrorism requires facing the facts of whos behind it and why. Story continues Reps for Omars office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap. You can see the New York Post cover below. The New York Post's cover for Thursday calls out Ilhan Omar for trivializing the 9/11 terrorist attacks as "some people did something" pic.twitter.com/xToghXSGw5 Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 11, 2019 Read original story New York Post Front Page Calls Out Ilhan Omar Over 9/11 Remarks At TheWrap Greg Craig, former Obama White House counsel, indicted originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Federal prosecutors on Thursday indicted Gregory Craig, a high-profile Washington attorney who served in the Obama White House, on alleged violations of foreign lobbying laws for his work in Ukraine. Craig, 74, faces charges of hiding material facts and lying to lobbying regulators under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, or FARA. In court documents, prosecutors accused Craig of failing to file as a lobbyist for his work in Ukraine in 2012 pursuant to FARA guidelines because doing so could prevent himfrom taking positions in the federal government in the future, among other reasons. Confronted by regulators at the Justice Department about his failure to register, Craig repeatedly lied and concealed information about his work for Ukrainian clients, prosecutors wrote. (MORE: Mueller probe shines spotlight on DC insiders lobbying for foreign nations) Attorneys for Craig called prosecutors' indictment "unfair and misleading" on Thursday. "It ignores uncontroverted evidence to the contrary," William Taylor and William Murphy, attorneys for Craig, wrote. "Mr. Craig had no interest in misleading the FARA Unit because he had not done anything that required his registration. That is what this trial will be all about." During the course of his work in Ukraine, court records show Craig shared clients with Paul Manafort, the onetime campaign chairman for President Donald Trump who was convicted of engaging in a secretive lobbying operation for Kremlin-backed Ukrainian president. PHOTO: Greg Craig listens as President Barack Obama makes a surprise appearance during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, May 1, 2009. (Charles Dharapak/AP, FILE) On Wednesday, attorneys for Craig issued a statement in anticipation of charges, arguing that Craig acted only as an independent expert on the rule of law, not as an advocate" for the Ukrainians. Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government's stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion, his lawyers wrote. Story continues Court documents show Craig repeated certain of the false and misleading statements during an October 2017 interview with special counsel Robert Muellers office. The special counsels office used lobbying violations in half a dozen cases brought against high-profile defendants over the course of his investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election. (MORE: Special counsel's questions for Manafort jurors include Ukraine) Notably, the law was cited in indictments of former chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted of engaging in a secretive lobbying operation for Kremlin-backed Ukrainian president back in 2012, and former national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who admitted to a foreign lobbying violation when he pleaded guilty to making false statements. If found guilty, Craig could face up to ten years in prison. The case was investigated by the FBIs New York field office and is being prosecuted by the U.S. attorneys office in Washington, DC. Craig has held a number of high-profile jobs in Washington, including as defense counsel for President Bill Clinton during impeachment proceedings and as counsel in the Obama White House. New Jersey high school principal dies donating bone marrow originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A high school principal has died donating bone marrow to someone in need. Derrick Nelson, 44, the principal of Westfield High School in Westfield, New Jersey, died April 8 after falling to into a coma during a procedure to donate bone marrow to a 14-year-old boy in France, Nelsons father told ABC News. He did not give further details. (MORE:Northern California special education teacher faces allegations of allowing a fight club in his classroom ) He was the greatest, Willie Nelson, 82, told ABC News. He added that the family doesnt know the exact cause of death, but was told Derrick may have suffered a heart attack. Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan said in a statement that she has talked with students, parents, teachers, counselors and nurses, who all shared stories of how Nelson had helped them. Many of us are struggling with this loss. But we are committed to continuing Dr. Nelsons legacy, Dolan wrote. We will set high standards for ourselves as Dr. Nelson set for himself. And, as Dr. Nelson has done, we will think less of ourselves and more of others around us. He has taught us many lessons. (MORE: New York teacher who says she was fired 'lost everything' over topless selfie) Westfield, New Jersey, Mayor Shelley Brindle also released a statement mourning Nelsons death. This is a tremendous loss for our community, and I know that our children, and we as parents, will struggle with coming to terms with this over the coming days and weeks, Brindle wrote. He was a man of immense character and kindness, and his legacy will live on in the generations of students whose lives he touched. Derrick Nelson joined Westfield Public Schools in 2010 as the assistant principal of Roosevelt Intermediate School. He then served as assistant principal and principal at Westfield High School -- a school with over 1,800 students, according to the school district. Nelson, who was born and raised in New Jersey, earned a doctorate in Education Administration from Seton Hall University. He also served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve for more than two decades, including a stint in the Middle East, according to Westfield Public Schools. Nelson leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter. 'Evil acts': Deputy's son Holden Matthews arrested for 3 Louisiana church fires originally appeared on abcnews.go.com The suspect who was arrested in connection to three fires at black churches in Louisiana had ties to "black metal" music, investigators said Thursday. Authorities apprehended Holden Matthews, 21, in St. Landry Parrish after they identified him as the suspect in allegedly setting the fires over a span of 10 days. "We saw an immediate threat of public safety. We felt that other crimes were imminent," Louisiana State Fire Marshal "Butch" Browning. PHOTO: Holden Matthews, 21, of Opelousas, La., is pictured in a photo released by the Louisiana State Fire Marshal on April 11, 2019. (Louisiana State Fire Marshal) Matthews is being held in St. Landry Parrish jail on three counts of simple arson of a religious building. Browning said that "we're still vetting several motives," but added that they have found that Matthews had ties to "black metal and its association and history with church burnings in other parts of the world." Black metal, a distant genre of devil-worshipping death metal music, has roots in the Norwegian heavy metal scene that reportedly was the inspiration for several church burnings in the country in the early 1990s. Gov. John Bel Edwards said that while there were four fires in Louisiana in a 10-day span, only three were in St. Landry Parrish; the other fire was more than 220 miles away and was not connected, authorities said. "I don't know what this young man's motive was ... it cannot be justified or rationalized. These are evil acts," Edwards said. PHOTO: The burnt ruins of the Greater Union Baptist Church, one of three that recently burned down in St. Landry Parish, are seen in Opelousas, La., Wednesday, April 10, 2019. (Gerald Herbert/AP) Investigators found a gas can at the scene of one of the fires, according to the affidavit in the case. They traced it back to a local Walmart and linked it to Matthews' credit card, according to the affidivat. Surveillance of Matthews at the Walmart and cell phone tower data placing him at the churches when the fires were set was also part of the evidence, the affidivat states. The blaze at the St. Mary Baptist Church was reported on March 26, followed by Greater Union Baptist Church on April 2, and then Mount Pleasant Baptist Church last Thursday. Officials have not determined the exact cause of the fires. Story continues Sheriff Bobby Guidroz of St. Landry Parrish said that while Matthews' father works as a deputy in his department, he did not, as has been reported by some media, turn his son in or identify him. (MORE: NAACP president calls series of church fires in Louisiana 'domestic terrorism') "Holden Matthews' father did not turn him in. We did not get any tips from the hotline. We got a lot of tips from the public and we investigated many tips and leads," Guidoz said at a news conference Thursday. Guidoz said that Roy Matthews, the suspect's father, is "shocked and hurt, as any father would be." "He knew nothing about his son's activity," Guidoz said. "He was in terrible shape." PHOTO: Illustration (ABC News) Prior to the announcement of Matthews' arrest, one local elected official said the fires appeared intentional and the NAACP categorized them as "domestic terrorism." (MORE: Black man who was held at gunpoint by white officers while picking up trash: 'It definitely brings fear to my heart') "For decades, African-American churches have served as the epicenter of survival and a symbol of hope for many in the African-American community," NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said. "As a consequence, these houses of faith have historically been the targets of violence." PHOTO: Graves from a cemetery are seen behind the burnt ruins of the Greater Union Baptist Church, one of three that recently burned down in St. Landry Parish, are seen in Opelousas, La., April 10, 2019. (Gerald Herbert/AP) Johnson noted that the fires had occurred within the same time span of another suspicious blaze in Tennessee, where a social justice training center was burned and tagged with anti-Semitic slurs. "What is happening in Tennessee and Louisiana is domestic terrorism and we must not turn a blind eye to any incident where people are targeted because of the color of their skin and their faith," Johnson said. "The spike in church burnings in the Southern states is a reflection of emboldened racial rhetoric and tension spreading across the country." (MORE: Authorities investigating fires at historically black Louisiana churches) Edwards made a similar point during Thursday's news conference, saying that people are "deeply troubled by the disturbing string of church fires." PHOTO: The remains of St. Mary Baptist Church after a fire days earlier, in Port Barre, La., April 6, 2019. (William Widmer/The New York Times via Redux) "It reminds us of a very dark past of intimidation and fear," Edwards said. "Hate is not a Louisiana value and violence has no place in our communities," he said, adding that it was a "reflection of one depraved individual." ABC News' Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report. Liz Emerson, the main character of the novel Falling Into Place, thinks like a teenager. She sounds like one, too. Thats probably because she was written by one. Over the course of a single month in the autumn of 2010, 15-year-old Amy Zhang wrote Liz Emerson to life. Each morning before school, Zhang rose at 4 a.m. and worked on her novel until 6. Sometimes, Id take a 30-minute nap, she told Refinery29, laughing. Zhang raced through the school day so she could come home and write again. Looking back on that month, Zhang can barely remember the sentences she wrote. What she does remember is the feeling that drove her, a sophomore in high school, to wake up in the early morning and pound away at a novel. You know that feeling when youre stuck on a level of Candy Crush? I had that feeling with writing, Zhang said. I remember having this feeling when I first signed with Harper [Collins in 2010]: I hope I never lose this enthusiasm. Falling Into Place fell into place with enviable speed. The initial idea for the novel unfurled during the long car rides Zhang took with her family from their small Wisconsin suburb to various spots Chicago for Chinese groceries; faraway malls. From there, it took Zhang a month to complete the manuscript. Then, from her childhood bedroom at home in the Midwest, Zhang managed to leap through the hoops of publishing, a notoriously opaque industry primarily based worlds away in New York City. To 15-year-old Zhang, getting published was just the last step in a natural progression: Write good sentences, sell the book. With her finished manuscript saved, Zhang went on the internet and researched what came next. Publishing is really convoluted and strange, but there are a lot of resources that help you take the steps you need to take, Zhang recalled. The internet is teeming with advice regarding each step in the path to publication, from articles promising the steps to perfect plot, or how to land an agent. Entire websites, like Writers Digest and Writers Market, are devoted to the trade of turning aspiring authors into published ones. Nevertheless, its one thing to read the articles and another to actually get the book published. With a little bit of moxie, Zhang had a meteoric progression: It took her a few months to score an agent, and a mere three days for her agent to sell the manuscript to HarperCollins. I just did it, and it happened to work out, Zhang said. Story continues But Zhang has a tendency to undersell one huge component of her debut novels near-seamless path to publication. Falling Into Place is good. Really, really good. At first, reading the novel, one would never assume it was written by a 15-year-old. Granted, Zhang was a seasoned author for a 15-year-old by the time she drafted Falling Into Place, she had already completed five (unpublished) novels. Still, Zhangs age is key to what makes Falling Into Place work so well. A teenager herself, Zhang was intimately, actively engaged with the teenage experience the range of full-throttle emotion, the climbing of social ladders that lead to nowhere. She thus makes Liz, an existentially frustrated queen bee, and her friends come to life with authenticity. These are mean girls, as only someone who knew mean girls intimately could design them. When Liz becomes frustrated with the torrents of high school drama (and her own behavior), she deliberately crashes her car in a failed suicide attempt. The rest of the novel switches between Lizs coma in the hospital and the tense lead-up to the accident in the characters lives. From page one, Falling Into Place stares right into the darkness of adolescence the same darkness that Zhang herself was intimate with back then. I was having a hard time in Wisconsin, Zhang explains. I felt like I was in a difficult place that I didnt know how to get out of. I knew how to write about someone who felt similar. When Zhang was 13, her family moved from St. Louis, where she attended a diverse high school, to a town in Wisconsin, where she was one of only a few students of color. It felt like I had been dropped into a 70s movie. It was so alien to me, Zhang says. In this new school, Zhang found herself with more free time, which she used for writing. In doing so, she sorted out her own emotional state. Falling Into Place is infused with the feelings that came from being the new girl in an unfamiliar setting. For Zhang, Lizs desperation came from reaching a dead end in an already dead-end place. Theres nowhere to go. It feels like every other town around you is also like this, [and everyone is] living similar lives in this way. People dont leave very often. I had this feeling of claustrophobia. If you screw up, people are going to remember that forever. The stakes feel so high, even though they obviously werent. Zhang can say that now, because shes grown up. Shes a 22-year-old college graduate with two YA books under her belt (her second book, This Is Where the World Ends, came out in 2016) and a new set of challenges than the ones she faced as a teenager working out plots on the long car rides shed take with her family. She has the bills of a New Yorker to pay, and the distractions of adulthood keeping her from sinking into a story with ease. Zhang has been working on her third novel for years. The words arent flowing as fluidly as they did when she was 15. As it turns out, turning writing from a side-hobby into a full-time job impacts the actual process. Writing feels different now. I was writing because I had nothing to do. It was just a game. Im not living at my parents house anymore. I need money to buy groceries! Zhang laughed. So while her former classmates are working 9-to-5 jobs, Zhangs riding the subway from end-to-end, working on her third novel on her phone. Their lifestyles are different. But then, they always had been. While studying philosophy and poetry at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, Zhangs author life constantly obstructed her student one. When her friends were studying in the library, Zhang was on a book tour throughout the country, greeting denizens of fans on international tours. While others turned in assignments, Zhang asked for extensions it was hard for her to finish homework when she was working on an independent novel. I definitely got a little resentful. It felt like I had signed away my life, which is so dramatic and ungrateful, but it felt like I wasnt at college for a lot of important moments, Zhang says. Zhangs balancing act between student and writer reached a head when, on one night out with friends, she tipsily opened up an email from a fan in distress. The fan had connected with Liz Emersons suicidal ideation and was writing to Zhang for help. I freaked out. I didnt know what to do, Zhang recalled. She ended up calling the suicide hotline in the country where the fan lived. But the incident stayed with her. The next morning, I felt like Id handled it all wrong. I felt really bad about going out. I was trying to figure out how to live a life while also being a writer which was a lot harder than Id anticipated. Now a graduate, Zhang can commit to the writing life fully. Her third novel will focus on characters of color, a step she barely could take when she was younger. All of the characters in Falling Into Place are white. I remember with Falling Into Place, I wrote with no character descriptions like, I cant deal with this. The actual responsibility and implication of writing characters of color didnt occur to me, Zhang says. The book will feature twins of Chinese descent as main characters. After years of running from the obvious conclusion, she knows shes a writer. Now, its a matter of just doing it. Im living the dream, she says, But it feels like Im in the middle of it. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? To Stop A Warlord Author Shannon Sedgwick Davis Taught Kristen Bell To Use Her Celeb Status For Good Mindy McGinnis: "My YA Books Aren't Here To Please Adults" The Fountains Of Silence Is This Fall's Hottest Historical Novel & You Can Start Reading It Now Charles David is finding its sweet spot. The womens brand is amping up its e-commerce business in order to connect with its consumer more than ever before. Having soft-launched the new site in December, Charles David has now been able to speak with its customer directly and understand exactly who she is. Since the launch, the company has seen online sales growth over the past two months, with emphasis on its spring 19 collection. Related stories Charles Malka, Founder of Charles David, Dead at 84 Plus, the company has a new creative director. Dana DeMartino took on the role late last year, and shes looking to the past for inspiration on where to take the brand. DeMartino, who had been working on the Charles by Charles David line prior to her promotion, told FN, We are harking back to what [founder] Charles Malka did. We want to celebrate that legacy. He had this iconic brand, and he was known for keeping a close eye on trends and evolving. Malka launched the Charles David line in 1967. He relocated the company to Los Angeles in 1987, and after facing increased competition and a changing retail landscape, parent company Charles David of California Inc. was sold to New York Transit Inc. in 2013. Malka died on Oct. 28, 2018, after battling Alzheimers. He was 84. Said DeMartino: He was inspired to make affordable luxury in a very wearable way, so Im trying to continue that, and I believe we are achieving it. For fall 19, the brand is focused on updating its assortment for the modern woman by introducing new silhouettes and heel heights. Shoppers can find different types of animal prints in the collection as well as warm earth tones. People want to wear something day to night, and we are reacting to that with chunky heels, 65-millimeter and 80-millimeter heights, DeMartino said. The customer is polished and sophisticated. [We are targeting] a range of a young adults and above who are going to work, achieving goals and wanting to look the part. Story continues The company is also boosting its wholesale business by expanding its assortment with its current partners. Said DeMartino: We are expanding business that weve had, and the reaction has been great. This month, the label has been introduced to the Bloomingdales shopper through trunk shows across the country. So far, the pop-ups have been introduced in San Diego and Los Angeles, and on April 13, the New York location will host a special kickoff event 12-4 p.m. In the fall, Charles David will be available in select Bloomgindales. Want more? Cupcakes and Cashmere Fashion Blogger Launches Shoe Collection Thats Perfect for Spring This Cult Paris Label Reimagined Its Logo With Help From Fashion Weeks Favorite Artist Sign up for FN's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Erik Prince is Betsy DeVos little brother, reportedly a former informal Trump adviser, and a multimillionaire advocate of war for profit. Prince was born in 1969 to an insanely wealthy family in the Dutch-inspired town of Holland, Michigan. Eriks father, Edgar, had a manufacturing business that hit it big with, among other products, a lighted car sun visor, which is good at both blocking the sun and blocking the LGBTQ+ community from progressing. After high school, Prince attended the U.S. Naval Academy before dropping out after three semesters. He graduated from Hillsdale College in 1992, having majored in economics. While at Hillsdale, Prince interned at the White House under George H.W. Bush, but his tenure there didnt last long. Prince said he saw a lot of things I didn't agree withhomosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act. He left to intern for California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a guy who voted no on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes. Prince went on to join the U.S. Navy, where he found the apparent need for private training facilities for special operations. He left in 1996 and inherited some of his fathers $1.35 billion fortune. In his book Civilian Warriors, Prince wrote, My father had created an amazing enterprise. I was blessed to inherit a fortune. Now I had to use it wisely. With his new fortune, Prince uses the money to start a private contracting military service based in North Carolina. Blackwater Lodge and Training Center opened in 1997 and quickly turned into the most notorious and controversial privatized military contracting service of all time. Blackwater reportedly received more than a billion dollars in U.S. government contracts and Prince became the biggest of the State Departments three private security contractors and seemingly the most reckless. A 2007 investigation by the U.S. State Department found that Blackwater was overbilling the State Department by manipulating its personnel records. It also found that Blackwater guards were partying, drinking, and once even drunkenly crashed a $180,000 armored car. According to one of the investigators, they saw themselves as above the law. In 2007, Blackwater employees opened fire and killed 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including a 9-year-old boy. The incident became known as the Nisour Square massacre. Blackwater claimed its guards were under attack and acted in self-defense. But the first U.S. soldiers to respond to the scene found no evidence of enemy activity and their report said the shootings by Blackwater were criminal event. Two Iraqi police officers directing traffic in the square at the time back up the report. From Blackwater, Prince went on to run Frontier Services Group, a Hong Kong-based security and logistics firm, is pushing the Trump administration to privatize the war in Afghanistan. Which could be bad depending on how you look at his resume. A few things might help his chances of securing a contract in either Afghanistan or Syria. In 2016, Prince donated $250,000 to Donald Trumps presidential campaign, the national party, and a pro-Trump super PAC and another $150,000 to a Trump adjacent super PAC, called Make America Number 1. Aside from donating loads of money, Prince donated serious time to Trump and the campaign. In November 2017, Prince told Congress that he played no official, or really, unofficial role in the Trump campaign. But he didnt tell them about a meeting he arranged at Trump Tower with Don Jr., Stephen Miller, a convicted pedophile, and an Israeli social media savant. One meeting Prince did disclose was a meeting which took place in the Seychelles, shortly before Trumps inauguration. In addition to Prince, the meeting was attended by a former Blackwater consultant turned adviser to the UAE and a Russian investor with reportedly close ties to Vladimir Putin. Reports suggest this meeting was a means to establish a backchannel between Putins ally and Trumps ally, who was Erik Prince. Its not yet clear if Princes favors to the president are enough to sway him towards privatizing war, but with millions of dollars, Prince definitely has more favors up his sleeve. This video, "Who Is Erik Prince? Narrated by Mo Amer", first appeared on nowthisnews.com. Quentin Tarantinos forthcoming film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has garnered attention for a number of reasons. For one, its jam-packed with A-list celebrities like Margot Robbie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Damian Lewis, Dakota Fanning, Lena Dunham and more. But the film is also fascinating because it has a darker edge. Damon Herriman as Charles Manson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood The story, which is set in 1969 Hollywood, touches on the murder of Sharon Tate and the cult leader that drove his followers to commit it: Charles Manson, who will be played by Australian actor Damon Herriman. Charles Mansons Family Life Before *That* Family Not surprisingly, Manson didnt have a happy childhood. His mother gave birth to him when she was 16 and didnt give him a name until weeks into his life. His biological father was estranged from the family. When Charles was young, his mother was sentenced to five years in prison for theft and he was sent to stay with his uncle and aunt in West Virginia. After his mom got out, Manson started being truant at school and stealing. He was sent to a reform school called the Gibault School for Boys. After he ran away from there, he was sent to another facility called Boys Town where he met another young man who helped him steal cars and rob a grocery store and casino at gunpoint. Then began a long slew of brushes with the law and subsequent imprisonments. In 1955, he married Rosalie Jean Wills and they welcomed their first child together. He was soon arrested again (and again and again) and eventually was discharged from prison in 1967. By then, he had spent 32 years in institutions and prisons. Thats when he moved to San Francisco and started forming what we now call the Manson family. Charles Mansons Followers & Cult Manson learned how to play the guitar in prison and earned a living begging and playing music. He met Mary Brunner, moved in with her and continued to welcome more women into their home as his followers. He became known as a guru in San Frans hippie metropolisthe Haight-Ashbury district. Borrowing some ideology from the Process Church of the Final Judgment, whose followers believe Satan would reconcile with Christ, he formed a mostly-female Manson Family and moved them down to Los Angeles. Their philosophy was dependent on free love, the consumption of LSD, dumpster diving and the belief that Manson was Jesus. Story continues Manson used the feminine wiles of his followers to get in the orbit of Denis Wilson of the Beach Boys and they moved into his house. Eventually Wilson introduced him to music producer Terry Melcher and Manson became hell-bent on getting a record deal. When this didnt happen and Wilsons manager evicted the Family from his house, Manson and his girls set up a home at Spahn Movie Ranch in Topanga Canyon. They traded sexual favors and labor for their stay, but Manson soon became upset about being slighted by Melcher and increasingly paranoid about a race riot. He established an alternative Manson hideout in Death Valley and had the family start training for the end of the world, or what he called Helter Skelter. And while the world didnt end, many lives did. Charles Mansons Children Due to the Manson familys belief in free love, theres not a ton of clarity as to how many children he actually has. However, its been confirmed that he has at least three sons. His eldest son, Charles Manson Jr. was born in 1956 (before he was a cult leader) to Rosalie Jean Willis, Mansons first wife. Hes sadly since taken his life. Manson conceived his middle son, Charles Luther Manson, with his second wife, Leona Stevens. His youngest son, whom he had with Brunner, is named Valentine Michael Manson. The Tate and Labianca Murders A couple of things happened before Sharon Tate and her four friends were murdered by the Manson Family in cold blood. In order to start a race war, Manson shot African American drug dealer Bernard Lotsapoppa Crow on July 1, 1969. Then, on July 25, he ordered family members Brunner, Bobby Beausoleil and Susan Atkins to music teacher Gary Allen Hinmans home to get some money out of him. Hinman was a friend of the family and when he didnt give them what they wanted, they held him hostage for two days, cut his ear off, then stabbed him to death. They wrote Political piggy on the wall and drew a panther paw to implicate the Black Panthers. On August 8, just before midnight, Manson ordered Charles Tex Watson, Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkle to go to Melchers former home on Cielo Drive and kill everyone there. Melcher didnt live there anymore, but pregnant actress Sharon Tate did. The Manson followers killed Tate, her unborn baby, and her friends, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger and Wojciech Frykowski, as well as delivery boy Steven Parent. Atkins wrote pig in blood on the front door to throw the cops off. The evening of August 9, Manson told Leslie Van Houten, Steve Clem Grogan and the four followers who perpetrated the Tate murders he was displeased by how they handled the situation. So he told them he was going to show them how to do it. They drove for some time until they arrived at the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Their home was next door to a place theyd attended a party in the previous year, and that was the only reason they were targeted. Instead of getting his hands dirty, Manson simply directed his followers. The LaBiancas were stabbed to death and jargon was written all over their home. The Charles Manson Family Trial The Tate and LaBianca murders both caused panic and extensive media coverage, but they werent initially connected. On August 16, sheriffs raided Spahn Ranch and arrested Manson and 25 others for car theft. Most members, save for Manson and Atkins, were released and there was no connection formed between them and the murders. It wasnt until months later when a motorcycle gang tipped off LAPD to the Manson Familys involvement in the murders. Atkins had spilled details about the killings to her cell mate when they were incarcerated for car theft. On December 1, LAPD arrested the rest of the family members involved in the murders. Evidence was obtained and the case went to trial on June 15, 1970. Manson, Atkins, Kasabian and Krenwinkle were charged with seven counts of murder and one of conspiracy. Technically, Manson never committed a murder (Lottsapoppa lived), but he essentially caused them and was charged accordingly. Van Houten was only charged with two. Ultimately, Kasabian was granted immunity. As the case went on, Manson and his followers continued to disrupt the court and act strangely by shaving their heads and carving Xs on their heads. They were all found guilty and sentenced to prison in 1971. Charles Mansons Death In January 2017, Manson experienced gastrointestinal bleeding and was deemed too weak for surgery. He returned to prison and died from cardiac arrest, respiratory failure and colon cancer on November 19 at the age of 83. RELATED: Watch Leonardo DiCaprio & Brad Pitt in First Official Trailer for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Emboldened by the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court, anti-abortion lawmakers and activists in numerous states are pushing near-total bans on the procedure in a deliberate frontal attack on Roe v. Wade. Mississippi and Kentucky have passed laws that would ban most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which means as early as six weeks, when many women don't even know they're pregnant. Georgia could join them if Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signs a measure that has been sent to him. And a bill in Ohio won final approval Wednesday in the Republican-controlled legislature; it now heads to GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, who said he will sign it. The final votes followed a spirited committee hearing where abortion rights activists evoked an era of back alleys and coat-hanger abortions. Similar bills have been filed in at least seven other states with anti-abortion GOP majorities in their legislatures. Alabama may go further, with legislation introduced last week to criminalize abortion at any stage unless the mother's health is in jeopardy. The chief sponsor of the Alabama bill, Rep. Terri Collins, acknowledged that the measure like the heartbeat bills is intended as a direct challenge to Roe, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. "To me this is an issue the court simply got wrong years ago," said Collins, who hopes President Donald Trump's appointments of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court lead to a reconsideration of Roe. Staci Fox, Atlanta-based CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast, said these bans are "blatantly unconstitutional and lawmakers know it they just don't care." The goal, she said, is to "challenge access to safe, legal abortion nationally." Activists and legal experts on both sides of the debate agree that getting a Supreme Court decision on such a defining case is unlikely any time soon. The bans may face difficulties just reaching the high court, given that Roe established a clear right to an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. Kentucky's heartbeat law has been blocked for now by a federal judge; abortion-rights lawyers are seeking a similar injunction in Mississippi before the law there takes effect July 1. Story continues "The lower courts are going to find these laws unconstitutional because the Supreme Court requires that outcome," said Hillary Schneller, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights. However, some federal appeals courts around the country, such as the 5th Circuit, which covers Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, are viewed as having grown more conservative with the addition of Trump appointees. If even one circuit breaks with Roe v. Wade and upholds a heartbeat ban, that could be enough for the Supreme Court to take up the issue, said Justin Dyer, a political science professor at the University of Missouri. Alternatively, the high court could agree to hear any of several less sweeping anti-abortion measures. Some would tighten restrictions on clinics; others seek to ban certain categories of abortions. What might happen at the Supreme Court is far from clear. Legal experts are unsure what effect the Trump appointees might have, or where Chief Justice John Roberts stands in regard to Roe. Schneller said she is skeptical the reconfigured court will overturn or weaken Roe, as abortion foes are hoping: "Over 45 years, the court has had different compositions, and we've always gotten the same answer." Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches social research at Catholic University of America, warned that it is impossible to predict what the court will do but said Kavanaugh's appointment "gives pro-lifers hope that legislation which offers more comprehensive protection to the unborn will receive a sympathetic hearing." Some anti-abortion groups have declined to endorse the heartbeat bills, signaling doubts about their prospects. Texas Right to Life has instead endorsed bills that would curtail late-term abortions and ban abortions based on a fetus' race, gender or disability. If the Supreme Court ever did overturn Roe v. Wade, states would presumably be left to decide for themselves whether abortion would be legal. The renewed challenges come as the number of abortions performed in the U.S. has steadily declined since reaching a peak of 1.6 million in 1990. The latest 50-state tally was 926,000 in 2014, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. The heartbeat bills in particular have alarmed many women. After Kentucky's governor signed the heartbeat bill, and before it was blocked, "we could feel the fear," said Marcie Crim of the Kentucky Health Justice Network, which runs a fund supporting Kentuckians who opt to get abortions. "We had so many phone calls from people trying to save up the money for their procedure," Crim said. "They were thinking they were safe and could go get this done, and all of a sudden it was snatched away from them." In Georgia, where Kemp is expected to sign the heartbeat bill soon, more than 50 actors, including Alyssa Milano, Alec Baldwin and Amy Schumer, have threatened a campaign to pull Hollywood productions out of Georgia a hub for TV and movie projects if the ban is enacted. Other states where heartbeat bills have been filed and in some cases advanced include Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Louisiana and West Virginia. ___ Associated Press writer Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report. Photo credit: Kristy Sparow From ELLE I first met Karl in the late 90s. It was a warm July night in Paris during Couture Week, one of those romantic evenings where you look back and think, That was so memorable and magical. It was Paris at the height of Paris couture. He wanted to invite some cool younger people to a dinner party at his home, so I was there, I guess representing in his mind a new up-and-comer. By pure coincidence, I had borrowed an evening suit from a friend, Hedi Slimane. It was a prototype for one of the first suits he made for Yves Saint Laurent- he was just starting out there as a menswear designer. I had tried it on and said to myself, Its kind of flashy, but then I thought, If you cant wear an evening suit like this to Karl Lagerfelds, where can you wear it? His exact first words to me were Lilac? Because the suit was in lilac silk and most of the fashion people there were dressed in black, and I showed up in this bright suit. We laughed, and from that point on, we struck up a friendship. He was always, to me, very funny and very generous. He represented all the extravagance and superficiality in the fashion world-I mean, he was a big symbol of that-but at the same time, he was such a kind, genuine, sincere, and authentic person. He was very real. Photo credit: Steve Eichner/Penske Media/REX/Shutterstock That suit was his first introduction to Hedis work, and six months later we were shooting in Karls studio when he asked me if I could introduce him to my friend. We all became close, and in 2002, each of us got a CFDA award. To celebrate, we threw an after party together. The plan was that we would bartend at our own party, just because we all had the same fantasy of Oh, Ive always wanted to bartend at a club. Karl took it very seriously; he learned how to make a cosmopolitan. Halfway through the night, Hedi and I felt like we were the only two serving, and we kept turning around and seeing Karl washing all the glasses. That was one of the funniest things ever, because he just kept saying, I hate mess! Thats why in the picture above, you see him with his sleeves rolled up. Id known him for three or four years at that point, and I had never even seen his forearms. Story continues As a kid growing up in the Philippines, I remember seeing Karl Lagerfeld on TV at the VH1 Fashion and Music Awards, accepting an award from TLC, and Id read about him in magazines, where Id see celebrities and socialites wearing his designs, like Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis in her Chanel couture gown. I always associated Karl both with very extravagant couture and with music and pop culture. Being a brilliant designer is one thing, but he was always able to connect the dots, whether it was with supermodels or royalty or pop stars. That was the magic that was Karl. He asked me to throw him a dinner party about a year and a half ago in New York, and Mariah Carey performed for him. It was almost like performing for the pope of fashion. I remember looking around the room: Gigi, Bella, Naomi Campbell. I just kept thinking, These are different worlds colliding. You have the music world, the fashion world, and I think even Lady Bunny was there to represent New York nightlife. It makes me think of those old photos of Studio 54, where youd see Halston with Liza and Bianca Jagger and Pat Cleveland and Diana Ross-just this mix of people. He was like a DJ who could mix all these incredible tracks. Photo credit: KMazur On January 22, the last day I spoke to him, I called him up a couple of hours after what would be his last couture show. He said, What did you think of the bride in the finale? I told him how beautiful I thought it was. And I knew that look, worn by Vittoria Ceretti, was his favorite outfit from the show. ELLEs cover shoot with Dua Lipa took place just a few days after he passed. The fact that, days after her Grammy win, Dua was dressed in his favorite outfit from his final couture collection bore some real significance to me. I think what the industry will miss most about Karl is his depth of knowledge and culture. When I first told him I was starting at ELLE as creative director, he said, I knew Helene Gordon-Lazareff [who founded the original French edition of ELLE]. I had dinner in her country house with her and her husband. They were a fabulous couple. To think that back then, after World War II, Karl had visited them in their home-how many people were actually there to tell the story? He could tell you the difference between Le Palace and Studio 54. He could tell you what Diana Vreeland, Halston, and Andy Warhol were like. Photo credit: Matteo Prandoni/BFA.com And he was a bon vivant who was able to enjoy such an extravagant lifestyle. Wed be driving in his convertible Rolls in Saint-Tropez, and he would look over at me and say, Ha-ha-ha, isnt it so fun to be so superficial? Some people could look at that side of Karl and think decadent, but I look at that side of Karl and think, Who lives like that nowadays? And how great it is to really celebrate the good things about life. He was sort of the antithesis of a miser-like Auntie Mame, saying, Live, live, live! This article originally appeared in the May 2019 issue of ELLE. GET THE LATEST ISSUE OF ELLE ('You Might Also Like',) Photo credit: Facebook/Mayor Shelley Brindle From Prevention Derrick Nelson, principal of Westfield High School in New Jersey, died on Sunday following a donating bone marrow to a sick teen. Nelson fell into a month-long coma after the procedure, devastating his students and family. Doctors explain the risks and complications of bone marrow donations. A high school in New Jersey is in mourning following the death of its principal, who died after donating bone marrow to a sick teen he had never met. Derrick Nelson, who was the principal at Westfield High School, went into a month-long coma and died on Sunday after donating his bone marrow to a 14-year-old in France, according to NJ.com. After the procedure he did, he couldnt speak and was lying in the bed, his father, Willie Nelson, said. His eyes were open and he realized who we were. But he couldnt move. He never spoke again. The principal did an interview with his schools newspaper about the procedure. He said he donated blood during college in 1996, and got the call from Be the Match, a national bone marrow donor program, in October 2018 that he was a match. He underwent the procedure a few months later. Nelson told the school newspaper that there were some complications that delayed the surgery, which he had in February. His doctors were concerned about using anesthesia because he suffered from sleep apnea, and an original plan to harvest stem cells through an IV was also changed when doctors learned that Nelson was a carrier for sickle cell anemia. Doctors finally decided to do the bone marrow surgery under a local anesthetic. Nelson fell into a coma soon after. We really dont know the full story of what happened, his father said. We were expecting him to come out of the coma he was in. But he didnt make it. But what exactly is bone marrow-and do donations usually carry high risks? Here, doctors explain what the procedure looks like and what future donors should keep in mind. What is bone marrow and why are donations important? Story continues Bone marrow is the soft, spongy tissue in the center of most of your bones, according to the National Cancer Institute. It produces white and red blood cells, as well as platelets (small blood cells that help form blood clots to prevent excessive bleeding.) A bone marrow donation is done to facilitate a bone marrow transplant, a potentially life-saving treatment for people with leukemia, lymphoma, and certain other diseases, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In order for a bone marrow donation to work, a patients tissue type needs to be matched up as closely as possible to the donors tissue type. For the actual bone marrow transplant, the patient undergoes chemotherapy or radiation to destroy their diseased bone marrow, which is replaced with a bloodstream injection of a donors healthy cells. The cells then begin to multiply and function. What does bone marrow donation involve? There are two main ways to go about this: via surgery or blood donation, says Muzzafar Qazilbash, MD, professor of stem cell transplantation at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Donating bone marrow is a surgical procedure done under general or regional anesthesia in a hospital, according to Be the Match. The donor is given anesthesia and doctors use needles to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of their pelvic bone. A donor may be able to do a peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) instead, which is a non-surgical procedure done in an outpatient clinic. PBSC donors receive daily injections of a drug called filgrastim for five days, which increases the number of blood-forming cells in the bloodstream, Be the Match explains. Then, a donors blood is removed through a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells (this is a process called apheresis). The blood is then given back to the donor through their other arm. The bone marrow replaces itself within six weeks, according to DoSomething.org. What are the risks and complications of donating bone marrow? It ultimately depends on the type of procedure you have done, says Jack Jacoub, MD, medical oncologist and medical director of MemorialCare Cancer Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif. But, in general, donation is absolutely considered safe, he says. Risks can include bone pain due to the medications causing bone marrow expansion, and allergic reactions to the drugs, Dr. Jacoub says. But, he points out, any drug you give anyone, regardless of how safe it is, could cause an allergic reaction. Medications can also cause a persons spleen to swell, and someone may have more minor reactions like a fever or flu-like illness, he says. Other side effects include: Back or hip pain Fatigue Muscle pain Headaches Bruising at the injection site General anesthesia and bone marrow surgery has a risk of complications, simply because its a surgery and all surgery carries risks, Dr. Qazilbash says. However, there are a lot of safeguards in place to make sure a patient is healthy enough for this beforehand, he says. That includes a donor having their blood counts, liver function, and kidney function screened in advanced, as well as being screened for infection and a history of lung or heart disease. If someone has any health issues, currently has cancer, is of an advanced age, or just doesnt seem to be in good physical health, theyre usually ruled out for donation, Dr. Qazilbash says. They have to be cleared by a physician in advance, he adds. Both experts stress that this is considered a very safe procedure overall, and that Neslons complications, while devastating, shouldnt deter people from donating in the future. The risk of complication is extremely, extremely low, Dr. Qazilbash says. Deaths are almost unheard of. Stay updated on the latest science-backed health, fitness, and nutrition news by signing up for the Prevention.com newsletter here. ('You Might Also Like',) Ask any wealthy Chinese millennial whats in their shoe closet, and chances are, theyll mention Balenciaga, Off-White and Gucci. Then theyll drop names like Keen, Simon Miller and Malone Souliers all much smaller boutique players in the industry. The Asian luxury retail market has been undergoing a radical transformation in recent years, moving from name-based consumption to distinctiveness-driven shopping. Related stories Keen's Response to Gucci's Lookalike Shoe May Surprise You The Ethical Wardrobe: Why Leather Is Now Under Scrutiny Malone Souliers Now Has Two Women at the Helm Behind the shift is a new generation of consumers: Theyre young, globally minded, digitally educated and interested in superior goods, though not as a symbol of wealth and status but as a signifier of taste and savviness. Within this new landscape, niche labels have become the latest, hippest buzzword. China is the largest case in point. The country, which has been steadily powering luxury spending for much of the past decade (despite the economic headwinds of recent years) has perhaps seen the most significant change in the market. Unlike the demographic that preceded them, Chinese millennials and Gen Zers are less loyal to traditional brands and increasingly more interested in exploring labels that will make them stand out, as reported by consultancy Bain & Co last year. To that end, indie styles and designers are getting most of their attention, especially for shoes and accessories. There is a strong sense of self-expression among younger Chinese consumers, said Sara Wong, director of merchandising at Hong Kong-based Pedder Group, the accessory and footwear specialist within the Lane Crawford Joyce Group. The feedback we get the most is that they want something unique, exclusive, but without compromising on quality and craftsmanship. High-end boutique labels meet all those requirements. Wong added, Though house brands still represent a large percentage in the Chinese market. Our performance from the past two seasons shows that our customers are yearning for niche brands. Uncommonness is the new luxury. Story continues Which is why in January, the high-end retailer launched Studio, an online and offline showcase of emerging, contemporary and limited-edition shoe and accessory labels. Among the selection are Mercedes Castillo, By Far, Neous, Cult Gaia and Aeyde, to name a few. All of them are performing exceptionally well, according to the Pedder Group. Their styles are very relevant, and their products are European-made, but at a very competitive price point. Wong said. They offer a high value proposition for customers. Lee Folland, research director at Reuter Communications, an Asia-based integrated communications agency helping luxury and premium brands connect with Chinese consumers, describes the resonance of niche shoe brands as a quest for a new kind of priceless exclusivity. [Buying less obvious names] shows the wearer not only knows quality but has also access to pieces others dont, he said. Since its establishment in 2014, British brand Malone Souliers has come to encapsulate that desire for exclusivity. Known for standout stilettos and inventive twists on classic pumps, mules and flats, the label caught the attention of Chinas trendsetters well before it officially entered the market in 2017. Wealthy Chinese travelers have been making mandatory stops at its appointment-only showroom in London (often without appointment) since the brands early days a result of word of mouth and a strong presence on luxury e-commerce platforms like Farfetch and Shopbop. Founder and creative director Mary Alice Malone attributes that success to an aspiration toward being different. Younger consumers are looking to newer brands rather than the traditional luxury conglomerates for designs that set them apart from the crowd, she said. I also feel that the rise of social media has played a really important role in opening up the space for the discovery of niche brands among the wider audience. Today, the brand has a healthy business in China as well as Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, where its carried by both high-end department stores and multibrand boutiques. Asia has always been a key market for us, said Malone. We have fantastic and very supportive retail partners who play a large part toward our continued growth within the region. For Luisa Krogmann, co-founder of Berlin-based Aeyde, the demand from China and increasingly the region at large came as somewhat of a surprise. The brand, founded in 2015 by Krogmann and Constantin Langholz-Baikousis as a digital-first venture, was picked up early by a buyer at Pedder Group. Our collection was tiny, with like 20 styles, compared to what it is today, with 120 SKUs, Krogmann said. We built the brand as a direct-to-consumer business with a distribution focus on Europe. Normally, we approach new markets quite strategically, but for China, we did not. The success we encountered came fully unexpected. Indeed, the brand is one of the most highly coveted among hip, sophisticated Chinese shoppers. Our subtle branding is well-perceived by the Chinese customer, Krongmann said. I also believe our retail approach plays an important role we are only working with carefully selected stores like Lane Crawford or Net-a-Porter. Aside from high fashion, the recent popularity of the Uneek shoe by Portland, Ore.-based outdoor brand Keen is another testimony to the power of niche across China and Asia. In an interview with Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, Joe Colistro, Keens head of business development in Asia-Pacific, said people in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong like the woven sneaker because they are willing to wear quirky items and care about putting their outfit together. Since its launch three years ago, 35 to 40 percent of Uneek sales have been in Asia. While todays consumers are notoriously fickle, experts predict that this trend among Asian shoppers will last. The era of opulence is over, Krongmann said. People spend their money for products that make them stand out from the masses. The customer doesnt want what everybody has. It is a lot about individual dressing and styling, which opens lots of opportunities for new, interesting products in all categories. Watch FNs interview with Hailey Baldwin about her street-style secrets. Want More? These Asian Shoe Brands Are Developing Big Followings in the West Why Reebok Made Its Runway Debut at Shanghai Fashion Week Allbirds Is Heading to China With a New Store in Shanghai Sign up for FN's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Even if you dont know a word of Ukrainian, youll be hooked on rapper Alyona Savranenko. She spits like a car revving up and rocketing off full speed until suddenly, youre carried away. The 27-year-old, who goes by the stage name Alyona Alyona, first caught my ear (and eye!) with her hit Fish (Ribki in Ukrainian), which was featured in two music videos. The first showed Savranenko, who is plus-size, in a bathing suit cruising around a lake on a jet ski. Some people wrote that they didnt like that, she tells me in Russian, of the skin-baring look. The second, which was released a few days later, spoofed a Soviet childrens show comparable to Barney & Friends or Sesame Street. In it, Savranenko wears a retro striped sweater, jeans, and sneakers, and a host asks where she sees herself in five years. Then, like a cannon, Savranenko unleashes her absurdist rap on a group of small children. The video racked up hundreds of thousand of views; later videos, like Open (Vidichnyae) and Head (Golovi), have accumulated millions. Her latest single Pushka, off the album of the same name that was released earlier this week, is up to 420,000 and counting. Photographed by Vitalik Melnikov Savranenkos rise has been a slow burn: Before making it, she was a cashier at a supermarket, sold makeup at a bazaar, and worked as a kindergarten teacher. (She holds degrees in psychology and teaching.) Savranenko always wanted to make music, though. She was born in the Kirovogradskaya region of central Ukraine, which was late to receive the influx of Western and Eastern goods after the fall of the Soviet Union. Her life changed when she first heard Gangstas Paradise by Coolio at age 12; a few years later, her father bought her Eminems album The Eminem Show on a work trip abroad. It changed my world, says Savranenko. When you write a regular song, a pop song, you have only a few lines. In one line there are only a few words and it is such little information. So when you rap, you can say a larger, more interesting story in longer lines. So I began to rap to tell more stories. Story continues Savranenko moved to a village south of Kiev at the age of 14; this past year, she relocated to central Kiev. Entering the countrys nascent rap scene involved finding herself and paving the way for a new era. Earlier when I started rapping, no one liked it. Everyone was like, Yuck! Women must make borscht, she tells me. No one listened, no one accepted it, and because of that I didnt tell anyone. I just wrote for myself. There are those who knit socks, make food, and I rap. That is my hobby. Even her choice of language drew criticism. I released my first track in Ukrainian, but [at the time] all of my friends were talking in Russian, says Savranenko. (Growing up, she spoke surzhyk, a mix of Ukrainian and Russian commonly spoken in central Ukraine.) They all listened to Russian rap, so I started writing in Russian so everyone would like it. At the time, much of Ukraines population spoke Russianbut after the Euromaidan protests in 2013, which caused a boom in nationalism, the Ukrainian language became more widely spoken. That prompted Savranenko to switch. I have a lot of words in Ukrainian and I wanted to say all of these words, she says. Photographed by Vitalik Melnikov Savranenko raps about really normal things. Take the song Fish, which she insists is simply about fish. Yet the lyrics feel deeper than thathow fish are powerful in their plainness and able to swim underwater, where a person in a boat would be caught in the undertow. (Fish has [sic] an honor, as one lyric goes.) That is Savranenkos charm: Shes a regular girl spouting off lyrics about regular things, not drugs, money, or some beef. Savranenko doesnt like those topics. I speak about myself and about people who I know, who are next to me, normal Ukrainian people and young people, she says. I speak that people need to accept us as we are and need to believe in us and let us do what we want to become and do what we want. I talk about how we become tired of telephones, and how we want to run away somewhere where we can play music. I talk about how I moved and left our homes and we are sad and miss our homes. Normal things. Photographed by Vitalik Melnikov Much like her subject matter, Savranenkos look also stands out from the crowd. There are few rappers in Ukraine in general, and significantly fewer women. Where female rappers are either hypersexualized or take on prototypically masculine tropes in the West, Savranenko does not subscribe to any specific aesthetic in Ukraines relatively new space. Aside from her bathing-suit moment in Fish, her music videos feature sporty athleisure looks. In Head, Savranenko runs toward the camera in a workout getup consisting of an Adidas shirt, shorts, leggings, and sneakers. I buy most of my stuff from secondhand, she says. It is important to me that things were comfortable, not high heels but rather sneakers. Savranenkos new album, Pushka, is equally self-aware and touches on her appearance and her power. The technical translation of pushka is gun but in slang means the shit. That title track also plays on the words pushka and pishka: In Russian, the latter denotes both a round, sugary fried doughnut and a plus-size woman. (Its similar to the usage in the American film Dumplin, which follows the story of a plus-size beauty queen.) One of the lyrics goes as follows: Tattoos on my face arent my thing. Im simply the shit. Pishka! Later, when I ask Savranenko why it was important to include that turn of phrase, she flatly writes sans explanation: Because I am a pishka. No matter how you slice it, her sound is quite simply, in Alyona Alyona terms, the shit. A manicure and OPI nail polish go together like peanut butter and jelly, Beyonce and Jay-Z, or a white tee and skinny jeans. The combo just makes sense. In fact, we'd argue OPI might just be the most iconic and well-loved nail polish brand of all time, easily boasting some of the most in-demand cult nail colors within the nail realm. And when you think of how many nail polishes there are out there, that's pretty damn impressive. Even if you're not a nail polish person (don't worry, we won't judge), chances are high that you'll recognize fan-favorite shades like I'm Not Really a Waitress, Lincoln Park After Dark, or Cajun Shrimp. And if not, don't stress: We're about to serve up a covetable list featuring 20 of the top best-selling OPI nail colors of all time. Curious to know which OPI colors nail polish lovers everywhere hoard obsessively? Keep scrolling! 1. Bubble Bath OPI Nail Lacquer in Bubble Bath ($9) If you love all things neutral and have gone through more bottle of Essie's Ballet Slipper than you can count, we recommend opting for this demure shade which the brand describes as a "sweet candy pink." 2. Big Apple Red OPI Nail Lacquer in Big Apple Red ($10) This perky shade of red is one of the brand's most iconic iterations of the classic hue. This one is juicy, commanding, and inspired by NYC. 3. Tickle My France-y OPI Nail Lacquer in Tickle My France-y ($11) We've always loved the cheeky name of this cult-favorite nail color from OPI, and we also love the chic homage it plays to one of our favorite destinations. The brand describes it as "naughty," but we'll let you be the judge of that. 4. Alpine Snow OPI Nail Lacquer in Alpine Snow ($10) Looking for the perfect shade of crisp white this season? Your hunt ends here. 5. I'm Not Really a Waitress OPI Nail Lacquer in I'm Not Really a Waitress ($10) We don't know about you, but when we think of OPI's all-time-best nail polish colors, we instantly think of this gorge wine-red hue. Story continues 6. Princesses Rule OPI Nail Lacquer in Princesses Rule! ($10) To be honest, we were semi-surprised to see such precious pink shade make OPI's best-seller list. But the numbers don't lie; apparently this glittery peek of pink is one of the brand's most-wanted hues. 7. You Don't Know Jacques OPI Nail Lacquer in You Don't Know Jacques! ($11) As my former fellow beauty editor Amanda Montell describes it, this "gloomy chic" shade of taupe is an answer for those who want something relatively neutral but slightly twisted. 8. Black Onyx OPI Nail Lacquer in Black Onyx ($10) Meet your lacquer equivalent to the LBD, Black Onyx. 9. Malaga Wine OPI Nail Lacquer in Malaga Wine ($11) Rich and intoxicating (or so says the brand), this vino-inspired hue is one of the all-time best and looks great on everyone. 10. Cajun Shrimp OPI Nail Lacquer in Cajun Shrimp ($10) I might be biased, but this is my personal favorite OPI nail polish color, and I'd pretty much like to have it permanently tattooed onto my nails from June to August. It's coral, but a little more red and more sophisticated. 11. Strawberry Margarita OPI Nail Lacquer in Strawberry Margarita ($10) We recommend pairing this best-selling bright pink nail color with your favorite tropical bevvie of choice. 12. Lincoln Park After Dark OPI Nail Lacquer in Lincoln Park After Dark ($10) Name a more iconic shade of brooding purple. We'll wait. 13. Taupe-less Beach OPI Nail Lacquer in Taupe-less Beach ($11) Think of this lighter, slightly more lavender shade of taupe as the second cousin of You Don't Know Jacques. 14. Funny Bunny OPI Nail Lacquer in Funny Bunny ($11) To be honest, we're not sure the difference between OPI rendering this shade of white "soft" and the above Alpine number "crisp," but we'll accept it as a classic best seller all the same. 15. Barefoot in Barcelona OPI Nail Lacquer in Barefoot in Barcelona ($11) Of course, if you can by any means actually be barefoot in Barcelona, we recommend it. Otherwise, make do with this hue. 16. Aphrodite's Pink Nightie OPI Nail Lacquer in Aphrodite's Pink Nightie ($11) The Greek goddess of all nail colors, this pearlescent shade of light pink is a pretty way to elevate your go-to neutral hue. 17. Samoan Sand OPI Nail Lacquer in Samoan Sand ($11) A warm-beige pink, this favorite shade effortlessly enhances your natural nail color. 18. Berlin There Done That OPI Nail Lacquer in Berlin There Done That ($10) Yep, another taupe! However, this German-inspired hue offers "creme" coverage and a chic neutral alternative. 19. Don't Bossa Nova Me Around OPI Nail Lacquer in Don't Bossa Nova Me Around ($11) Pink? Gray? An enchanting combo of the two? We think it's the latter, and take it from us since we wear it 70% of the year. 20. Sweet Hearts OPI Nail Lacquer in Sweet Heart ($11) Almost white, this ultra-pale shade of pink is one of the most elegant to date. Next up, celebrity manicurists share the best nude shades of nail polish for every skin tone. This article was published at an earlier date and has been recently updated. This article originally appeared on Who What Wear Read More from Who What Wear A billboard in Illinois is throwing so much shade at conservative states that are currently trying to limit reproductive rights, and we're cheering. Reproductive rights in the United States have been under near-constant assault since the 2016 presidential election. A number of states are currently attempting to introduce what are known as heartbeat bills in which abortion would be outlawed as soon as a fetus has a detectable heartbeat (which is by about six weeksand before many women even know theyre pregnant), and several states are attempting to ban safe and legal abortions almost entirely. So were literally cheering in our seats today after learning about a major clapback coming out of Illinois. The state has erected a Welcome to Illinois billboard that makes it very clear that they support a womans right to choose. "Welcome to Illinois, where you can get a safe, legal abortion," reads a new billboard that recently appeared on the side of an Illinois highway near Missouri. https://t.co/WvHJtoBIub CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) April 11, 2019 undefined According to CBS News, the billboard is located near the state border with Missouri and was funded by pro-choice groups in March after the Missouri legislature began attempting to pass laws that would severely limit abortion access within the state. The billboard is also located near an Illinois womens clinic that Missouri women can attend should their own state begin denying them critical reproductive options. Were heartened to see this literal billboard-sized act of resistance, and were also glad that progressive states are attempting to assist women in conservative areas whose rights are currently at risk. These are scary times, but theres always something we can do to fight. By Jeff Mason SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would have to mobilize more of the military at the U.S. border with Mexico after listening to stories about migrants crossing the border from people attending a Republican fundraiser. "I'm going to have to call up more military," Trump said. The president said some of the people crossing the border were ending up dead from the journey on Americans' ranches. He interrupted his discussion with Republican donors to bring in reporters to listen to the stories about the border. "Many, many dead people," Trump said, referring to migrants who he said had perished after making the journey. "Also they come in and raid their houses, and it's very dangerous," Trump said, referring to locals affected by the influx of migrants. There are currently about 5,000 active-duty and National Guard troops near the border, though that number fluctuates. "We support our federal partners," Pentagon spokesman Army Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis said when asked about Trump's comments. Trump in February had deployed an additional 3,750 U.S. troops to the country's southwestern border to support Customs and Border Protection agents. Later that month, Democratic governors of states including Wisconsin, New Mexico and California withdrew their National Guard troops, saying there was not enough evidence of a security crisis to justify keeping them there. Trump, who drew sharp criticism for saying during the 2016 presidential campaign that Mexico was sending rapists and drug runners to the United States, said on Wednesday that those comments were tame compared to the stories he had heard since. "People are dying. Great people are dying. Bad people are coming up. You have both," he said. "From the time I made my first speech at Trump Tower, when I mentioned the word 'rape' and everybody went crazy - because that turned out to be nothing compared to what happens on those journeys up. Nothing. My speech was so tame, as it turned out." Trump has made immigration a signature issue of his presidency and of his re-election campaign. He declared a national emergency over the issue earlier this year in an effort to redirect funding from Congress to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. Earlier this week he announced that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was stepping down. White House officials said he wanted new leadership at the department to focus more closely on what he has called a border crisis. Trump is in Texas for fundraising stops that Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said would raise some $6 million. Trump and the other participants at the San Antonio fundraiser emphasized the toll that the trips across the border were taking. "Let me tell you, we can document well over a thousand dead bodies over the last five to six to seven years. Thats the ones that we find," said Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Trump said his proposed wall would help. "If you had a wall, they wouldn't be able to get through ... You know, ... you can take them to some place where they can be taken care of. And they won't come; you won't have so many - because if they know they can't get through, they're not going to come," he said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by James Dalgleish) Ford Motor(F) is investing $900 million to set up both a battery-car plant its second and an autonomous vehicle center in southeast Michigan, not far from its headquarters in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. It's part of the automaker's push to lead in autonomous vehicles while also trying to catch up to rival Tesla(TSLA) in the emerging electric vehicle market. CNBC sat down with Ford's newly appointed president of its global automotive division, Joe Hinrichs, in recent weeks. The company just announced his promotion in a management shake-up Wednesday along with Jim Farley, who will run the company's autonomous vehicle and "smart mobility" efforts, among other things. Although both men will have the title of president starting May 1, Hinrichs' job is bigger and makes him the heir apparent to CEO Jim Hackett. "Uncertainty" is one of the things that keeps Hinrichs up at night. And he's facing a lot of it these days. In his newly expanded role, Hinrichs will oversee product development, as well as global automotive operations core units in the midst of radical change. Ford is pulling out of the sedan and coupe market, even as it invests billions to develop battery cars that have yet to catch on with consumers. Like its rivals, the second-largest Motor City automaker is facing a variety of challenges. Sales have been sliding in the U.S., European operations are losing money and Ford is reportedly considering a major shake-up of its Indian operations, to name just a few challenges Hinrichs has to handle. Now, add the threats posed by the Trump administration's trade wars tariffs on aluminum and steel last year alone adding $1 billion in costs. Here are some excerpts from CNBC's interviews with Hinrichs: CNBC: A year ago, Ford announced plans to increase its investment in electric and hybrid vehicles to $11.1 billion and a company statement says a "fresh look" at the potential market says it's likely to be bigger than initially expected. Story continues Hinrichs: We were always confident there would be growth in demand for electric vehicles. As we take a closer look, we're seeing more acceptance. That's especially true among millennials [who], over the next five to 10 years, will be the biggest buying group in the market. The multibillion-dollar question is getting your timing right. We're still trying to find that. We believe electrification is a really important part of our future. CNBC: On the same day Tesla revealed its Model Y electric SUV, Ford teased its own "Mustang-inspired" battery-electric crossover on Twitter. It's supposed to be your first long-range model, but when is it coming to market? Hinrichs: We haven't given a timeline, but it's next year, 2020, and we're very excited about it. One of the things that often gets lost in the conversation about electric vehicles, because of the cost, is that there are attributes of a vehicle you can make better with electrification. Along with instant torque, there's the smoothness and quietness of the ride, the low center of gravity. There are fewer moving parts, so reliability [should be better]. And the way you can use the package gets more efficient because you don't have all that stuff in the engine compartment up front. CNBC: The $900 milliion investment also includes money for autonomous vehicles. What are you planning? Hinrichs: We found a more capital-intensive way of building [autonomous vehicles]. So, we're going to build them in a special manufacturing center the same way we produce our police interceptor in Chicago. [Ford takes a regular vehicle off the line and sends it to a special conversion center.] That allows us to produce the same number of vehicles but frees up capital for the second battery plant. CNBC: In January, you announced what was said to be the first of several possible deals with Volkswagen(VOW3-DE), including one that could pair up your EV programs. Where do things stand now? Hinrichs: We made the announcement on partnering on vans and trucks outside North America. Those conversations, I would say, went very well. There's a good matching up of needs and strengths. We're very excited about that alliance. We signed an MoU about continuing to have discussions on other topics, and those conversations are going well. There's a good alignment and the talks are going well, which is as far as I can go. CNBC: But Farley, who is currently president of the Americas, seemed to recently dash expectations, saying it will be hard to come together on electric vehicles because the timing of your programs is different. Hinrichs: Timing is always a challenge when you're talking to a partner about how your needs and programs line up. But those conversations continue to go well. CNBC: Speaking of a changing market, the industry is in the midst of a dramatic shift from cars to trucks which now account for 70% of the U.S. market. Is there much room for more growth? Hinrichs: I would say that it's gone further than I estimated it would and it is still going. There are a few key contributors. The [light trucks] we offer today don't have the compromises they did in the 1990s. Now, you don't have to give up the ride comfort and the relative difference in fuel economy has diminished significantly. The cost of gas has certainly had an influence. I also think our society has gotten used to the idea that devices can do all sorts of things. Your smartphone is your rolodex, your phone, your camera. Society now expects vehicles to be multi-functional, too. So, I don't think it will stop. CNBC: Since a management shake-up nearly two years ago, Ford has been going through a lot of changes. What can you tell us about the planned Ford reorganization? Hinrichs: You mean the "smart redesign" we started last fall which is really about flattening the organization and removing some of the bureaucracy. We want to let the people running each layer of the organization handle that redesign, rather than from the top down. We think we'll get bigger insight and a bigger buy-in. CNBC: How is that different from your broader global restructuring? Hinrichs: We've already announced plans for our Brazilian [truck plant] in Sao Bernardo to close, and that's our first big step there. In Europe, we don't have a lot to announce because we're in discussions with our partners, but we're having very constructive and engaging discussions. We've set up our China operations as a standalone business under Jim Farley and we're looking at everything in our China business. CNBC: What about North America? Hinrichs: We don't have as deep a restructuring as in those other markets, but we're looking at the cost structure and execution of the launch of some very important products over the next few years that will have a big impact on our business the new Ranger [pickup], the Explorer and Aviator and Escape [SUVs] this year and then a number of incremental nameplates the next year, including the Bronco and the 300-mile all-electric SUV. And we're keeping our trucks super fresh. In North America, we think we're going into a really sweet spot over the next 18 months. CNBC: We've heard about job cuts in Latin America and Europe, as well as white-collar cuts in North America. What about blue-collar cuts in the home market where General Motors(GM) has eliminated five plants and thousands of hourly jobs? Hinrichs: In December we announced that both Louisville and Flat Rock will remove a shift but we plan to move those people to where we need more capacity like the Livonia transmission and Kentucky Truck Plant. So, in North America, with all the product launches coming, we don't see substantial assembly plant changes coming in the near future. CNBC: So, hourly workers don't need to worry? Hinrichs: If the U.S. economy stays strong and the industry stays where it is, I don't see dramatic changes to our manufacturing plans for this year in North America. CNBC: But how concerned are you about the U.S. economy? Hinrichs: This "peak auto" story has been around for several years. It wouldn't surprise me, given where we are in the U.S. economic and automotive cycle that people are being cautious about hiring. January and February sales were down but they were impacted by severe weather. We'll see what the spring selling season brings. It usually tells a better tale of what the year will hold. But there's clearly a lot of uncertainty out there. CNBC: "Uncertainty" is a word I've heard a lot from you and other industry officials lately. Are we in a more uncertain period than the industry has faced in a long time? Hinrichs: It's fair to say that we're in the most uncertain period since the global financial crisis. We have a U.S. government engaging in trade negotiations with multiple [nations] at the same time, which is unprecedented. And there's a very important review of [U.S.] fuel economy standards. Given our cycle times and the capital exposures we have, we crave certainty for planning, as much as possible. So, when you add everything going on, the industry is going to get more conservative because we don't know where to place all our bets. CNBC: Ford is heavily dependent on the U.S. market, but don't you have a lot at risk now in Britain. Hinrichs: Brexit, on its own, is both fascinating and scary all on its own, because the U.K. is very important business for us. I'd be surprised if [a "hard Brexit"] is the probable outcome. Maybe it's my personality but I'm always optimistic that, at the end of the day, people will find a resolution because it's in nobody's interest for there to be a no-deal Brexit with chaos. But sometimes these things happen. London (AFP) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's seven-year hideout in Ecuador's London embassy ended spectacularly Thursday when British police arrested him on an extradition request from the United States to face hacking charges. Footage shot by the Russian video news agency Ruptly showed a frantic-looking Assange -- his worn face framed by a bushy white beard and shock of silver hair -- being huddled out of the building by burly men in suits and pulled into one of two waiting police vans. A Ruptly reporter who shot the scene and requested anonymity told AFP that Assange shouted "UK must resist" as he was hauled away by at least seven men dressed in dark suits and ties. The scene took place on a plush side street in the heart of London that has been Assange's refuge from prosecution since 2012. "No one is above the law," British Prime Minister Theresa May told to a round of cheers in parliament. The moment of high drama came after Ecuador, which has grown increasingly frustrated with Assange's stay under pro-US President Lenin Moreno, withdrew its asylum. UK police said Assange had been initially arrested for breaching his bail conditions in 2012 and then "further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities". Within hours, pony-tailed Assange appeared in court for a brief hearing where he gave a thumbs-up sign to the press gallery and sat reading a copy of Gore Vidal's book "History of the National Security State" about the US military-industrial complex before the hearing began. Judge Emma Arbuthnot pronounced Assange guilty of the bail charge, which carries a sentence of up to a year in prison, and remanded into custody to face sentencing at an unspecified later date. He also faces a separate hearing on the US extradition request on May 2. Assange had long suspected that he was secretly wanted by Washington for his decision to publish a trove of classified Pentagon documents detailing alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Story continues US authorities had steadfastly refused to confirm reports that they had issued a sealed indictment against Assange -- until Thursday. The US Justice Department said Assange was being charged with a computer hacking conspiracy relating to his work with former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in March 2010. "Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," a US Justice Department statement said. "If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison" - 'Violation of international law' - Assange will now be at the heart of a legal and diplomatic tug of war pitting Assange and his legions of supports -- including the authorities of Russia -- against the US justice system. His US-based attorney Barry Pollack condemned "an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information". WikiLeaks accused Ecuador of breaching international law by withdrawing his asylum. "Ecuador has illegally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law," the whistleblowing website. Ecuador's Moreno insisted that he had "asked Great Britain for the guarantee that Mr Assange will not be extradited to any country in which he could suffer torture or face the death penalty". - 'Dark moment for freedom' - Assange's case has opened up broader debate about security and free speech. His supporters view him as a crusader who fearlessly exposes injustices such as torture and alleged war crimes committed by the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq. Assange's critics accuse him of cosying up to authoritarian leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and putting Americans' lives at risk. Fugitive former US government contractor Edward Snowden -- himself wanted for leaking details of secret US surveillance programmes -- called Assange's arrest a "dark moment for press freedom". Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Britain of "strangling freedom". But UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Assange's "has hidden from the truth for years" and was trying to "escape facing justice". "He is no hero," Hunt said. - 'Truman Show' - WikiLeaks on Wednesday had claimed that it was being blackmailed by "dubious characters" who had obtained security camera footage of Assange inside the embassy. WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson accused Ecuador authorities of gathering the images as well as copies of private documents prepared for Assange by his lawyers. Hrafnsson said these had then found their way into the hands of a group in Spain that was demanding $3 million (2.7 million euros) not to publish them. "Since Moreno took power in Ecuador (in 2017), Julian Assange has been living in a Truman Show type (surveillance) situation," Hrafnsson said. On Thursday morning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by British law enforcement, bearded, screaming and carrying a copy of Gore Vidals History of the National Security State, which he was seen hours later reading during a London court hearing where District Judge Michael Snow pronounced him guilty of failing to surrender to British authorities in 2012. Since Assange first took refuge in the embassy nearly seven years ago amid a Swedish investigation into allegations of rape, observers around the world wondered whether U.S. authorities would attempt to charge him with crimes related to the publication of classified documents and cables on the Iraq War, first provided to him in 2010 by Chelsea Manning, then a military intelligence officer. On Thursday, hours after Assange was ejected from the embassy, the U.S. Department of Justice published an indictment against him alleging he had conspired to help Manning crack a sensitive Department of Defense computer password in order to access files Manning did not have permission to view. According to the BBC, Assange will reappear in the London court by video screen on May 2, relating to the U.S. extradition charges. Julian Assange arrives at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London after being taken into custody, April 11, 2019. (Photo: Victoria Jones/PA via AP) The current charges do not appear to relate to espionage or publication of classified information allegations that activists, journalists and former Justice Department officials have warned would have a chilling effect on journalists who publish sensitive information. Matt Miller, a former DOJ spokesperson, has repeatedly said that a key barrier to bringing charges against Assange during President Barack Obamas tenure was related to the dangers of setting a precedent against publishers. However, the indictment accuses Assange of a conspiracy that includes his attempts to conceal Manning as the source of the disclosure by removing usernames from the disclosed information and deleting chat logs between Assange and Manning as well as using a special folder on a cloud drop box to transfer the files. These tactics, including concealing the identity of a source and facilitating secure transfer of documents, are tactics utilized by many journalists and news organizations, including through the use of end-to-end encrypted message platforms like Signal and secure file-transfer systems like SecureDrop. Story continues While the indictment against Julian Assange disclosed today charges a conspiracy to commit computer crimes, the factual allegations against Mr. Assange boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source, wrote Barry Pollack, one of Assanges attorneys, in an email to Yahoo News. Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges. One source familiar with the ongoing case against Assange, which has been proceeding for nearly a decade at this point, told Yahoo News the FBI and DOJ possessed the Jabber chat exchanges between Assange and Manning for years. Those messages, according to the indictment, appear to be key evidence that Assange offered to help crack a password for Manning going beyond the journalistic role of accepting information, and actually soliciting it. However, according to the indictment, it is not clear whether those attempts to break into the military computer network were successful. There are additional sealed charges against Assange, the source told Yahoo News. While Assanges attorneys were concerned with the precedent the charges would set, former colleagues of the WikiLeaks founder were not surprised by them. Andy Stepanian, a former WikiLeaks consultant, referred Yahoo News to a Twitter thread he had posted in 2018 suggesting that it was possible Assange would be charged with crimes relating to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, whose sentencing guidelines he described as so broad and draconian the accused can face decades for merely sharing hacked materials. Stepanian told Yahoo News he spoke to people interviewed by the DOJ, who said they were asked about computer intrusion topics that the government has publicly focused on: 2010 cables and war logs, connections to other hacker figures including Jeremy Hammond and LulzSec, and the Vault 7 disclosures of CIA hacking tools. All touch CFAA, Stepanian wrote in a text message. The arrest and extradition were made possible because Ecuadorian authorities chose to expel Assange from his diplomatic safe haven by withdrawing his asylum status. Assanges situation in the embassy was becoming unusually bad, CNN reported in May 2018. However, the possibility of returning him to U.S. authorities was never popular in Ecuador, according to a BuzzFeed investigation. Lenin Moreno, elected president of Ecuador in 2017, was under increasing pressure from both U.S. and Spanish authorities to push him out. Spanish authorities were frustrated by Assanges social media posts about Catalonia. Assanges access to the internet was cut off by embassy staff on multiple occasions, and his visitors largely were severely restricted. Even his attorneys had difficulty visiting and communicating with him. In April 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Assanges arrest was a priority. Earlier, however, multiple Trump allies, including Mike Pompeo, now secretary of state, celebrated Assange and WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election for the disclosures of emails relating to Hillary Clinton, John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee only for Pompeo to turn around and condemn WikiLeaks when he was director of the CIA. U.S. authorities were also interested in WikiLeaks publication of CIA hacking tools, a disclosure that a former CIA employee, Josh Schulte, is currently charged with providing to WikiLeaks. Its unclear whether the DOJ will reference those disclosures in its case against Assange. In the meantime, Swedish authorities may still pursue an investigation into Assange on the original allegations of rape and sexual assault. While the case was officially dropped in March 2017, Swedish attorney Elisabeth Massi Fritz told Yahoo News she is hopeful the police will reopen the case. Assanges arrest understandably comes as a shock to my client, and what we have been waiting and hoping for since 2012 has now finally happened, she wrote in an email. We are going to do everything we possibly can to get the Swedish police investigation re-opened so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape. No rape victim should have to wait 9 years to see justice be served. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Photo credit: Air Force From Popular Mechanics The Raider is a little closer to real. The U.S. Air Forces next-generation stealth bomber is progressing as planned, the service says. and the next step is to actually fly the plane. Thats the word from an Air Force's man in charge of acquisitions, Lt. Gen. Arthur Bunch. He told Congress the stealth bomber, which would replace older stealthy bombers, is expected to be operational in the mid-2020s, and could fly as early as 2021. "Our next major milestone is first flight," Bunch told the Senate Armed Services Committee, as reported by Military.com . (The Raider, named after Doolittles Raiders that struck Japan in 1942, passed its Critical Design Review in December.) Bunch said the bomber will be "initial operations capable"-that is, the point at which the first squadron of the jets can conduct limited combat operations-in the mid 2020s. So when could the B-21 fly? It took the B-2 two years to progress from this point to first flight, so we could see the B-21 fly in 2021. Once available, the prototype jet will fly from Edwards Air Force Base in California and Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. The B-21 Raider bomber will be a heavy strategic bomber capable of carrying nuclear or conventional weapons. A flying wing design, the B-21 strongly resembles the older B-2. The B-21s range is classified, but it should be able to conduct intercontinental missions against targets in China and Russia with tanker support. The amount of payload in conventional and nuclear weapons is also classified. It will have a crew of two but also be capable of being flown remotely. The Air Force plans to purchase a minimum of 100 B-21s at a cost of $550 million per plane in 2009 dollars, or $641 million per plane in 2019 dollars. The B-21 will replace the B-2 Spirit bomber, which can carry either conventional or nuclear weapons, and the B-1B Lancer bomber, which can carry only conventional weapons. This will give the Air Force more long range nuclear platforms in the long run. Story continues The B-21 will not replace the B-52 Stratofortress, which could fly into the 2040s. The B-52 will just never die. ('You Might Also Like',) (Photo: Shutterstock.com) (Photo: Shutterstock.com) As the deadline for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union looms with no deal in sight, data privacy attorneys said many are taking a wait-and-see-approach over how they can transfer data between the U.K. and EU after Brexit. To be sure, even if the deadline passed without a withdrawal agreement approved by the U.K. Parliament, the U.K. would still be subject to the General Data Protection Regulation until Dec. 31, 2020, when the country would officially leave the bloc. "EU-originated personal data will go without any formal restriction to the U.K. during that 21-month grace period," said Gabriel Voisin, a London-based Bird & Bird partner. The 21-month transition period, Voisin added, could be used by the U.K. Parliament and EU lawmakers to hash out an agreement that ensures the U.K. policy meets EU data protection standards. In contrast, the U.K. has already agreed the EU member states' data protections are adequate enough for them to transfer data into the the country without restrictions. In an ideal world, during that 21-month period the U.K. can obtain from the EU lawmaking bodies a so-called adequacy decision, which will give the permission for the U.K. to receive, without any form of restriction, EU-originated personal data, Voisin said. However, he also added, in the withdrawal agreement there is absolutely no guarantee after this evaluation that the U.K. will receive such an adequacy. Establishing an adequate protection measure, which confirms a country's data protections conform to EU standards, isnt uncharted territory. Recently, Japan's data protection was deemed adequate by the EU, and the country joined Israel, Switzerland and Argentina in receiving EU approval for data transfers. If the EU does find the U.K.'s data protections are adequate, the policies for transferring EU-based data in the U.K. will be more straightforward, said Kingsley Napley senior associate Rowena Rix. It will largely operate as it does now, noted Rix. Still, a timeline for obtaining that adequacy decision seems difficult as the U.K. government juggles other pressing issues, including entering international trade agreements to ensure imports and exports of food. There will be so much to consider in terms of Brexit. It's just a question of where they see that on their list of priorities. Who knows what that list will look like?" Rix said. "Organizations have to be prepared for the possibility of not having this finding of adequacy for a while. All this uncertainty means that those looking to transfer data between the EU and U.K. will have to wait an indeterminate amount of time for clarity. I think definitely in our community theres a wait-and-see approach, because you could be rewriting all your contracts and you don't have to, Rix said. To be sure, some industries have taken a more proactive approach. I think its fair to say, across industry, we see a vast amount of companies doing nothing. However, there are certain industries, in contrast, that do take action," Bird & Birds Voisin said. "Especially because they feel better about the effect Brexit could have, or their compliance nature would force them. He cited financial institutions and companies in the aviation industry as the industries more likely to prepare for Brexit. Such contingency plans can include adopting standard contractual clauses, which are approved by the EU as a legal basis to safeguard some transfers of personal data to third countries, including the U.K. Still, Rix noted although the U.K. is leaving the EU, data privacy is here to stay in Britain and Northern Ireland. If anyone is under the illusion of 'we can be more relaxed over data protection,' I think that would be an incorrect conclusion, she said. By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Four California district attorneys have jointly agreed to seek the death penalty if they win a conviction of an ex-policeman charged with 13 counts of murder attributed to a serial predator dubbed the "Golden State Killer," prosecutors said on Wednesday. The decision, disclosed during a court hearing for the suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo, 73, put the prosecutors at odds with a statewide moratorium on capital punishment declared last month by Governor Gavin Newsom. DeAngelo was arrested in April 2018, capping more than 40 years of investigation in a case that authorities said was finally solved by DNA evidence. The breakthrough came about two months after the case gained renewed national attention in the bestselling book: "I'll Be Gone in the Dark." Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert called it "probably the most notorious" series of rapes and killings in California history, a crime spree spanning 11 years from 1975 to 1986 across multiple jurisdictions. The defendant was an officer in two small-town California police departments during the 1970s. Schubert and her counterparts from Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange counties "unanimously concluded to seek the death penalty in this case," her office said in a statement after Wednesday's hearing. DeAngelo is charged with 13 counts each of murder and kidnapping. Twelve murder counts accompany "special circumstance allegations" - such as rape of the victim - that make him eligible for capital punishment, the prosecutors said. The 13th murder count, in Tulare County, does not. In all, authorities have said DeAngelo is suspected of dozens of rapes and more than 120 burglaries in and around Sacramento, the eastern San Francisco Bay area and Southern California. Four weeks ago, Newsom, a Democrat, said he was imposing an indefinite moratorium on executions for any of the 737 inmates now on death row, the most of any state. Story continues Newsom said he took the action in part because he was deeply troubled by the possibility of putting an innocent person to death as the state moved to toward resumption of executions after developing a new protocol for lethal injections. The governor, whose moratorium angered victims' rights advocates, has since said he was considering a ban on future death sentences. California last carried out an execution in 2006. Voters passed a 2016 ballot measure aimed at speeding up the process, but that initiative has failed to work, critics say, largely because it lacked additional funding needed to implement necessary reforms. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney) COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) Thousands are queuing at Copenhagen Zoo to see two giant black-and-white bears on loan from China under Beijing's popular "panda diplomacy" initiative. Denmark's Australian-born Crown Princess Mary untied a red velvet ribbon to open the gates Thursday in her capacity as the zoo's patron. She was assisted by her twins, Princess Josephine and Prince Vincent. The opening came a day after Mary's mother-in-law Queen Margrethe inaugurated the Panda House that's been built for 6-year-old male Xing Er, and Mao Sun, a 5-year-old female. The bears arrived last week in cargo containers and were driven to the zoo's new 160-million kroner ($24.2 million) yin-yang shaped enclosure. Beijing has lent out pandas as a sign of goodwill. Any cubs born during the 15-year loan period are considered China's. Best Life Over 37 million Americans are living with kidney disease, also known as renal disease, a progressive condition that causes a gradual loss of normal kidney function over time. However, experts warn that the vast majority of those with the condition are unaware of their diagnosis. In fact, according to Joseph Vassalotti, MD, Chief Medical Officer at the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), just "10 percent of people with chronic kidney disease know that they have it."That's because symptoms tend to b Bratislava (AFP) - A former soldier charged with killing investigative journalist Jan Kuciak has confessed to his murder, three sources including the akutality.sk news website where the victim had worked, reported on Thursday quoting police sources. Kuciak and his fiance Martina Kusnirova were gunned down gangland style in their home in February 2018 as he was about to publish a report on alleged ties between Slovak politicians and the Italian mafia and associated irregularities in EU farm subsidy payments. Aktuality.sk, owned by German publisher Axel Springer, quoted an unnamed "well-informed source" on Thursday saying that Miroslav Marcek, a former professional soldier had confessed to the double murder. Two other Slovak media outlets, including public broadcaster RTVS and Dennik N, also reported that Marcek had confessed, quoting anonymous police sources. Marian Kocner, a property developer with alleged links to the governing populist Smer-SD, was charged on March 14 with ordering the hit on Kuciak who had probed some of his suspect business dealings. Marcek, and three other suspects have also been charged with the double murder and have been in police custody since October. The double murder and Kuciak's explosive report plunged the eurozone country of 5.4 million people into crisis, triggered mass protests that toppled then Smer-SD prime minister Robert Fico in March 2018. Sustained public outrage over the crime propelled Zuzana Caputova, an anti-graft environmental lawyer, to the presidency in March elections. Kuciak had been investigating Kocner's business activities at the time of his death, one of several stories he had been working on for aktuality.sk. Transparency International ranks Slovakia in 57th place in its list of the world's most corrupt countries and high-level corruption has long been a top election issue. By Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A key element of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election was whether President Donald Trump unlawfully acted to impede the investigation, a crime known as obstruction of justice. According to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, Mueller's nearly 400-page report on his findings presents evidence on both sides of the question, and while it "does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." But Barr, two days after Mueller submitted the confidential report on March 22, told U.S. lawmakers in a four-page letter that he as attorney general concluded that the evidence amassed by the special counsel "is not sufficient" to establish that Trump committed criminal obstruction of justice. Federal law defines obstruction of justice as actions that "corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice." The public may soon get a chance to make its own conclusions. Barr on Tuesday said in congressional testimony he plans to release the report within a week, with portions blacked out to protect certain categories of sensitive information. Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's numerous contacts with Russia and whether he committed obstruction of justice has cast a cloud over his presidency heading into his 2020 re-election bid. Here is an explanation of key events relating to whether Trump committed obstruction of justice. OVAL OFFICE MEETING WITH COMEY Then-FBI Director James Comey and other U.S. intelligence officials attended a Valentine's Day counterterrorism briefing at the White House on Feb. 14, 2017. After the briefing, Trump, who had taken office just weeks before on Jan. 20, asked everyone but Comey to leave the room, according to testimony Comey gave to Congress in June 2017. According to Comey, Trump said he wanted to talk about Michael Flynn, who had resigned under pressure a day earlier amid revelations about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, while Trump's predecessor Barack Obama was still president. "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Trump told Comey, according to memos Comey wrote about the conversation. Comey testified that he interpreted that as Trump giving him a "direction" regarding an FBI investigation into Flynn's false statements about his Russian contacts: to drop the inquiry. It was one of handful of private conversations between Comey and Trump in early 2017. Trump repeatedly said he expected loyalty, Comey said. Comey said he viewed the conversations as unusual given the FBI's long history of independence from the White House. In March 2017, Trump held a private meeting with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, now secretary of state, and asked them to intervene and get the FBI to back off its Flynn investigation. Despite these conversations, the FBI continued to investigate the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia during the 2016 election. TRUMP FIRES COMEY Trump fired Comey on May 9, 2017. The public explanation given by the White House was that Comey had mishandled a 2016 investigation into the use of a private email account and server by Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 Democratic opponent. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Justice Department No. 2 official Rod Rosenstein signed letters recommending Comey's firing on those grounds. The next day, Trump had a private White House meeting with visiting Russian officials. "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump said, according to reporting by the New York Times. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off," Trump added. On May 11, 2017, Trump again appeared to tie Comey's firing to the Russia investigation in an interview with Lester Holt of NBC News. Trump told Holt he was going to fire Comey regardless of Rosenstein's recommendation. "And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,'" the president said. The weekend before firing Comey, Trump dictated to an aide a meandering four-page letter explaining his reasons for firing Comey, which was never sent, according to the New York Times. That letter, which Mueller has obtained, stated Trump's displeasure with Comey's handling of the Russia investigation, the Times reported. TRUMP ORDERS MUELLER'S FIRING Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel to take over the Russia investigation after Trump fired Comey. In June 2017, news reports surfaced that Mueller was also investigating possible obstruction by Trump. Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, citing alleged conflicts of interest, but McGahn refused and threatened to quit, the New York Times reported in January 2018. McGahn was concerned that firing Mueller would fuel accusations that the White House was trying to obstruct the investigation, and McGahn's refusal prompted Trump to back off the order, the Times reported. STATEMENT ON TRUMP TOWER MEETING Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., set up a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and other Russians who had offered the campaign damaging information on Clinton. After being promised "dirt" on Clinton, Trump Jr. wrote in an email, "I love it." When news of the meeting broke in July 2017, Trump Jr. issued a misleading statement saying the meeting was set up to discuss adoption policy, not politics, before later admitting he had been expecting intelligence on Clinton. At issue is his father's role in drafting the statement. White House advisers later acknowledged that the president dictated the statement put out in his son's name, after initially denying his involvement. Misleading journalists and the public is not a crime, but the shifting explanations could be seen as evidence of Trump's intent to impede the investigation, legal experts said. PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS Trump lawyer John Dowd in 2017 repeatedly broached the idea of Trump giving presidential pardons to former advisers charged by Mueller, the New York Times reported in March 2018. Some legal experts have said that dangling a pardon in front of witnesses in hopes of influencing their testimony could constitute obstruction of justice. TRUMP ASSAILS SESSIONS OVER RECUSAL Normally, the U.S. attorney general would have overseen the Russia inquiry. But Sessions in March 2017 recused himself because of his own contacts with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, while serving as a Trump campaign adviser. Oversight fell to Rosenstein, who subsequently appointed Mueller. The New York Times reported that Trump had pressured Sessions not to recuse himself and erupted in anger when the attorney general did so. Sessions wrote a resignation letter, but Trump rejected it on the advice of advisers, according to news reports. In July 2017, Trump on Twitter called Sessions "beleaguered" and accused him of taking "a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes." In June 2018, Trump tweeted: "The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn't tell me he was going to recuse himself." In September 2018, Trump told an interviewer, "I don't have an attorney general. It's very sad." Trump ousted Sessions in November 2018. Trump's hectoring of Sessions could be cited by Mueller as evidence of an intent to obstruct the probe, legal experts said. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham) Shutterstock The British prime ministers request for another Brexit delay results from the intensity of diverging positions in the British parliament over Brexit. After a series of indicative votes, where no Brexit plan received majority support, we can sum up the five options as: Theresa Mays withdrawal agreement, a no-deal Brexit, staying in the customs union, staying in the single market, and the so-called Common Market 2.0 idea. Heres a break down of what those options mean. 1. Theresa Mays withdrawal agreement Strike your own trade deals? Yes. Freedom of movement? No. EU budget contributions? Yes. Does it solve the Irish border issue? Yes. Mays withdrawal agreement is unpopular in the UK but has been approved by the EU. As it stands, things would remain the same for the time being, until a trade deal is organised. It avoids the need for an Irish border until then, as the UK and EU would form a customs union. In the meantime, the UK and EU would negotiate their future relationship. The broad shape of this is set out in a non-binding political declaration, which suggests the future relationship will be a comprehensive trade agreement. In this scenario, the UK would not be bound by EU freedom of movement requirements a fundamental principle of the EU single market that allows goods, money, services and people to move freely within the bloc. The UK would also be able to sign free trade agreements with others, as Brexiteer MPs demand. The UK would make contributions to the EU budget to participate in selected programmes of interest. Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com However, the withdrawal agreement specifies that if no satisfactory technological and regulatory solution is agreed for the Irish border to avoid a return of a hard border in Northern Ireland and respect the Good Friday Agreement, the UK would retain regulatory alignment with the EU. The infamous Irish backstop is an insurance mechanism and would cease to exist as soon as adequate alternative mechanisms are viable to operate customs checks without a physical border. Story continues The prime ministers deal places the UK on a path to a future trade agreement with the EU, the extent of which is, at present, uncertain. But whatever form it takes it will represent less access to the EUs single market, especially for services, than at present, and some form of increased transaction costs for businesses. Remaining in a customs union or in the single market would avoid some of these, while allowing the UK to exit the formal political institutions of the EU. Yet, both options have pitfalls. 2. Customs union Strike your own trade deals? No. Freedom of movement? No. EU budget contributions? Yes, but limited. Does it solve the Irish border issue? Yes. Remaining in a customs union would resolve the Irish border matter, and would meet Mays red line regarding ending the free movement of people. But it would commit the UK to applying the same external tariffs and restrictions on goods as the EU, and to adopt the same rules of origin for goods, as well as regulations in areas related to the customs union. This would curtail the UKs ability to negotiate independent, preferential trade agreements as it would have no leeway to alter EU tariffs. The flip side is that the UK would have preferential access to any country that has negotiated a trade agreement with the EU. Crucially, this would apply to goods, but not, in the absence of an agreement on services, secure access to the EU market for UK services sectors. Contributions to the EU budget would be limited to participation in specific programmes the UK may be interested in. Kevin J. Frost / Shutterstock.com 3. Single market Strike your own trade deals? Yes (although there would be some constraints on their content). Freedom of movement? Yes. EU budget contributions? Yes. Does it solve the Irish border issue? No. Some checks may be necessary. Membership of the single market would improve the prospects for the UKs services sector. But it implies accepting the four freedoms of movement that form its basis including movement of people. It will also entail budgetary payments to support participation in the single markets programmes. European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states are members of the single market through the European Economic Area (EEA) with the EU, but can strike their own preferential trade agreements, so the UK would too. Single market membership reduces the need for certain checks at the Irish border, but if there are different tariffs in place on each side of the border, some form of checks could be required. It could be that some technological customs is viable that eliminates the need for checks at the border and minimises business disruption, however, there will be more transactional costs than at present. 4. Common Market 2.0 Strike your own trade deals? No. Freedom of movement? Yes. EU budget contributions? Yes. Does it solve the Irish border issue? Yes. A cross-party panel of MPs presented a compromise solution, dubbed Common Market 2.0 proposal, aimed at combining some of the benefits of the customs union and single market options. Common Market 2.0 involves accepting the current withdrawal agreement but renegotiating the political declaration, committing the UK to join the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). EFTA states, as part of the EEA, respect the four freedoms of movement of the internal market, including people. They also make contributions to the EU budget to the programmes and agencies they participate in, and towards reducing economic inequality amongst EEA states through EEA grants. This is the relationship Norway has with the EU. Where the Common Market 2.0 proposal differs from Norways relationship (which is why its also called the Norway+ model) is that it commits the UK to entering a special customs arrangement with the EU. It is unclear if this would be a customs union, which would curtail the UKs ability to negotiate preferential trade deals, or something else. This presently does not exist between EFTA and the EU, has not been agreed by Europe yet and is not guaranteed to happen. 5. No-deal Brexit Strike your own trade deals? Yes. Freedom of movement? No. EU budget contributions? No. Does it solve the Irish border issue? No. If no agreement is reached, the default position is a no-deal Brexit. Outside the EU, the UK would no longer need to abide by EU freedom of movement requirements, nor would it have to contribute to the EUs budget. The UK would be able to negotiate preferential trade agreements, no longer bound by EU tariffs and rules. Negotiating trade agreements is a lengthy process and the UK will find it hard to negotiate better deals than the EU gets. Plus, the EU is the UKs biggest trade partner and it would immediately face a number of trade barriers if it defaults to WTO rules. This would be highly disruptive to businesses in the UK and EU, and entail serious economic consequences for both sides. And, in order to ensure that the appropriate tariffs are applied at the borders in a relationship governed by WTO terms some form of border control would be required between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This would be necessary to guarantee the integrity of the single market and avoid Ireland becoming a back door for third party goods. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The Conversation Maria Garcia has received funding from the ESRC and EU in the past. She is affiliated with UACES (the academic association for contemporary European studies). By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Greg Craig, who served as former President Barack Obama's top White House lawyer, was charged on Thursday with lying about work he performed in 2012 for Ukraine in a case that grew out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Craig, 74, faces up to 10 years in prison for charges of making false statements and violating a lobbying law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). He is accused of lying to the Justice Department about his work after he left the White House on a legal review that largely vindicated the prosecution of a political enemy of Viktor Yanukovych, the Russian-aligned president of Ukraine at the time. Craig said in a statement he headed a team of lawyers that worked on an independent report for Ukraine's justice ministry. After researching FARA requirements, they found they did not need to register as foreign agents under the law. "This prosecution is unprecedented and unjustified. I am confident that both the judge and the jury will agree with me," Craig said. Craig's lawyers indicated he would plead not guilty. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, the New York law firm that produced the report, agreed in January to turn over the $4.6 million it was paid and retroactively register as a foreign agent, as part of a settlement with the Justice Department. Skadden produced the 187-page report at the behest of Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign who is currently serving a 7 1/2-year prison sentence for lobbying violations and financial crimes. Manafort was apparently happy with Craig's work. "You are 'THE MAN,'" he wrote Craig in an email after the report received favorable media coverage, according to the indictment. The report was meant to be an objective review of the Ukrainian government's prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko, the country's former prime minister who was convicted in 2011 on corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in prison. It criticized Tymoshenko's behavior during the trial and concluded that her due-process rights had not been violated, but also said that she had been improperly imprisoned during the trial. The report was used by Yanukovych's government to justify Tymoshenko's pretrial detention to the European Court of Human Rights and influence U.S. lawmakers. Yanukovych was one of Manafort's main lobbying clients. FUNDED BY UKRAINIAN BILLIONAIRE According to the indictment, Craig covered up aspects of his work in order to avoid registering as a foreign agent under FARA, a rarely enforced law that was enacted in 1938 to counter Nazi propaganda. Had Craig complied with the law, he would have been forced to reveal that funding for the report largely came from Viktor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian billionaire. Pinchuk paid the firm $4 million for its work, according to Skadden filings made as part of its settlement. The Ukrainian government only paid Skadden $12,000 - an amount so low that it aroused suspicion in Ukrainian media. Craig also failed to disclose that Skadden was simultaneously helping out with Tymoshenko's prosecution on other charges, prosecutors say. "That would do enormous damage to the credibility" of the report, Craig wrote in an email to other Skadden attorneys, according to the indictment. Craig privately had reservations about Tymoshenko's treatment but left them out of the report, the indictment said. "Evidence of criminal intent - i.e., that she intended to commit a crime - is virtually non-existent," he wrote in a memorandum that was not included in the report, according to the charges. During his tenure as Obama's White House counsel from January 2009 to January 2010, Craig led the administration's unsuccessful effort to shut down the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He also represented former President Bill Clinton during his 1998 Senate impeachment trial. Another Skadden lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, pleaded guilty last year to lying to investigators about the report. Craig's case stems from Mueller's 22-month investigation into whether Trump's presidential campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election. That probe led to charges against 34 people, including Russian agents and former key Trump allies, but Attorney General William Barr said last month that Mueller did not find enough evidence to charge Trump or others with criminal conspiracy. Barr also said he decided there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice. He is expected to release a redacted version of Mueller's final report to Congress next week. (Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann, Nathan Layne and Mark Hosenball; editing by Lisa Shumaker, Bill Berkrot and Chris Reese) San Pedro Sula (Honduras) (AFP) - A new migrant caravan of around a thousand Hondurans hit out for the United States border on Wednesday in defiance of threats from US President Donald Trump. According to the Red Cross "more than 800, almost a thousand," migrants converged late Tuesday on the town of San Pedro Sula before heading north through Guatemala towards Mexico and the US border. The caravan, which followed a call on social media, took the authorities by surprise after similar appeals since February failed to muster numbers. Such groups are a target of Trump, who has vowed to tighten migration policy and build a wall to stop them from entering the United States through Mexico. Among the latest departures were many families with children. Video: More Troops May Be Sent To The US-Mexico Border Alexis Perez, 27, said: "We are done with this government. There is no work." Around half of them crammed aboard a fleet of minibuses, some that would take them to Tecun Uman on the Guatamala-Mexico border for a $51 fee. Others opted for the shorter and cheaper trip to Agua Caliente, a town on the Honduran border with Guatemala. Around 300 migrants were left to hike along the road to Guatemala, or catch lifts from passing cars. - Taken by surprise - Since October 13, when the first caravan of 2,000 set off, three other similar convoys of migrants have left Honduras for the US in search of work or fleeing drug-traffickers. Several thousand Central Americans have trekked across Mexico by caravan since last year, fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries. They travel en masse in hopes of finding safety in numbers against Mexican gangs that regularly extort, kidnap and kill migrants, sometimes in collusion with local authorities. Honduran migrants have been undeterred by the threats, according to experts. Around 300 cross into Guatemala every day, a country they must traverse to reach Mexico, with the United States beyond as the ultimate goal. Story continues "Every night, up to six buses-full of migrants are heading to the border," said Franklin Paz, a transport company employee in San Pedro Sula, which has become a hub for the migrants -- both those who are leaving and those being sent back. While many Hondurans strike out from here, others find themselves back where they started, after being expelled from the United States. Liza Medrano, head of the General Directorate for the Protection of Honduran Migrants, said two flights carrying evicted Hondurans and up to 16 buses arrive daily from Mexico -- bringing a total of around 750 home to Honduras. Hundreds of returned migrants arrive at San Pedro Sula airport with their hands and feet chained. "For this year alone, up to March 3, 19,605 Hondurans, have been sent home, said Medrano. "They kicked me out today," said Roger Quintanilla. "They caught me in Houston, Texas. He said he fled Honduras to avoid being forced to enlist in one of the country's notorious gangs. "Here, we can't live," the 18-year-old said. Santiago Reyes said he felt betrayed by reports that it was easier to reach the United States if he was with a child. "I was deceived, everyone said that the transition to the United States was easy, but now, with the law, that's changed. "It's a lie, They are not granting asylum with children," said Reyes, alongside his seven-year old boy. Photo credit: Parco Valentino From Car and Driver Et tu, Torino? If there's a country more passionate about vehicles and the act of driving than Italy, we'd be hard pressed to name it. But now, even Italy is joining the global rush to hand it all over to the robots and let the cars drive themselves. As self-driving cars make the transition from dreamy-eyed research conducted in laboratories and simulators, carmakers and tech firms need actual streets on which to test in real-world conditions. While some government regulators have proven more cooperative than others (Phoenix, Arizona, for instance), legal permission to run driverless cars on city streets isn't easy to come by, particularly for smaller startups. But now one city isn't just allowing self-driving cars to run on its roads, it's courting them. That city is Turin, the fourth largest in Italy and-as longtime home of Fiat headquarters (and several of its plants)-about the closest equivalent to Detroit you'll find in southern Europe. That is, if you can imagine southeastern Michigan with a Mediterranean climate and ancient architecture. Through the recently launched Torino City Lab initiative, the municipality aims to attract tech startups and provide them with the tools, data, and expedited bureaucracy they need to develop new technologies. And it's placing particular emphasis on the automotive and transportation sectors. Photo credit: FEV With its Smart Road project, the city is developing a 22-mile circuit of urban streets augmented to create a real-world testing ground for autonomous vehicles and driver-assistance systems. Along the route, the city and its partners are installing 5G mobile internet infrastructure, an array of 72 smart traffic lights, and dedicated cloud-computing servers close to the network. "We are doing this to attract in our city innovation, to give new opportunities to our citizens, and to create an ecosystem that is open and ready for innovation and new startups," Paola Pisano, deputy mayor for innovation and Smart City in Turin, told tech investors at the OurCrowd Summit, which recently took place down the Mediterranean coast in Jerusalem. "We want to be the first city in innovation." Story continues What Turin stands to gain extends beyond jobs for its residents and tax revenues from the influx of companies it's courting. The initiative is designed to give planners insight into the relationship among vehicles, infrastructure, and the people who use them. And through those insights, it aims to develop new transportation models to cater to the needs of residents and visitors while reducing traffic congestion, road accidents, and environmental pollution. Photo credit: Navya French autonomous-vehicle firm Navya has already begun testing its self-driving shuttles in Turin, the first such pilot project undertaken anywhere in Italy. Engineering consultancy FEV has also started testing its self-driving prototypes there. And Intel's Mobileye division (based just across town from where the summit was held) is creating high-definition digital maps of the city. But those are just a few of the many partners that the Palazzo Civico (Turin's city hall) has lined up to support the project. Also taking part are local universities, telecom companies, and automakers. These include not only the obvious ties to Fiat Chrysler, but also Italdesign (the Volkswagen Group's Turin-based design house), the consulting arm of Mercedes-Benz, and General Motors (which divested from most European operations but kept its powertrain-development facility in Turin). "We have a strong ecosystem around mobility and around manufacturing," Pisano said. "So for this reason, for us, it is natural for us to do this evolution." New Funding Is Driving Self-Driving Startups In Israel, Pisano penned a new partnership on her city's behalf with OurCrowd, the investment firm that organized the summit, to help the tech startups it funds take advantage of the initiative and test their technologies in Turin. Of the $1 billion it has raised and dispersed to 170 companies in its portfolio since 2013, OurCrowd currently funds 10 startups working on driver-assistance and autonomous-vehicle technologies. "Partnering with Torino City Lab gives our companies not only access to an urban playground for testing and strengthening their technology but a potential foothold into the European market as well-a win for everyone," said OurCrowd founder and CEO John Medved upon the announcement. "Public/private partnerships like this one are the future of scalable innovation," Pisano added, noting that her administration is "glad to continue to be the forefront of this trend." Unleashing fleets of autonomous prototypes on public streets might be enough to scare off some government officials. But the official responsible for Turin's innovation initiatives is adamant that the potential benefits outweigh the safety risks and that the infrastructure her team and partners are putting in place will mitigate the chances of possible mishaps. "The car has all the sensors around it to understand the environment, but if you want to create a more secure structure, you have to give more redundancy to the data," Pisano told Car and Driver. "So for this reason, we map all the city with precision mapping in order to [provide] redundant data. "If you have 5G, you have low latency," she said. "But if you have also the cloud close to the car, you can have faster [processing] of the algorithm. So we have really strong technology for safety, we [gather] redundant the data, we take out [drivers'] distracted behavior . . . and we cross our fingers that the thing we are thinking is correct for the security of our citizens." ('You Might Also Like',) TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's military said on Tuesday it lost contact with one of its Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters over the Pacific Ocean close to northern Japan. Japan's first squadron of F-35s has just become operational at the Misawa air base and the government plans to buy 87 of the stealth fighters to modernize its air defenses as China's military power grows. The advanced single-seat jet was flying about 135 km (84 miles) east of the air base in Aomori Prefecture at about 7:27 p.m. (1027 GMT) on Tuesday, when it disappeared from radar, the Air Self Defense Force said. The military has launched a search for the missing aircraft and its pilot, it said in a statement. Lockheed Martin said in a statement that it was standing by to support the Japanese Air Self Defense Force as needed. The Pentagon said it was monitoring the situation. A crash would be only the second time an F-35 has gone down since the plane began flying almost two decades ago. It would also be the first crash of an A version of the fifth-generation fighter designed to penetrate enemy defenses by evading radar detection. A U.S. military short take off and landing (STOVL) F-35B crashed near the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina in September prompting a temporary grounding of the aircraft. Lockheed Martin also makes a C version of the fighter designed to operate off carriers. Japan's new F35s will include 18 short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) B variants that planners want to deploy on its islands along the edge of the East China Sea. (Reporting by Tim Kelly, Kiyoshi Takenaka and Stanley White. Additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Chris Sanders in Washington; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Cynthia Osterman) By Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton and Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - British police dragged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange out of Ecuador's embassy on Thursday after his seven-year asylum was revoked, paving the way for his extradition to the United States for one of the biggest ever leaks of classified information. Hours after the frail-looking Assange, with white hair and a long beard, was carried head-first by at least seven men out of the London embassy and into a waiting police van, U.S. officials announced he had been charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. As he was being hauled out of the embassy in a dramatic scene shortly after 0900 GMT after Ecuador terminated his asylum, the Australian-born Assange was heard shouting, "This is unlawful, I'm not leaving." British Prime Minister Theresa May hailed the news in parliament, to cheers and cries of "Hear, hear!" from lawmakers. But in Washington, President Donald Trump, who in 2016 said "I love WikiLeaks" after the website released emails that U.S. authorities have said were hacked by Russia to harm his election opponent Hillary Clinton, told reporters he had no opinion on the charges against Assange. "I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It's not my thing," Trump said. Assange gave a thumbs up in handcuffs as he was taken from a police station to a London court, where he pronounced himself not guilty of failing to surrender in 2012. Judge Michael Snow called Assange, wearing a black jacket and black shirt, a "narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests" and convicted him of skipping bail. Sentencing will be at a later date. Police said they arrested Assange, 47, after being invited into the embassy following Ecuador's withdrawal of asylum. He took refuge there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault investigation that was later dropped. Assange was carried out of the building - located behind the luxury department store Harrods - carrying a copy of Gore Vidal's "History of The National Security State", which he continued reading in court. Story continues In Washington, the U.S. Justice Department said Assange was charged with conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to gain access to a government computer as part of a 2010 leak by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of U.S. military reports about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and American diplomatic communications. Legal experts said more U.S. charges could be coming. The indictment was made secretly in March 2018 and unsealed on Thursday. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted, with legal experts saying more charges were possible. Ecuador suspended Julian Assange's citizenship and accused him and others at WikiLeaks of collaborating in attempts to destabilise the Andean nation's government. FRICTION WITH ECUADOR Assange was offered refuge in 2012 by Ecuador's then-president Rafael Correa, but his relationship with Ecuador soured under Correa's successor Lenin Moreno, who has said Assange violated the terms of his asylum. Ecuador accused Assange of leaking information about Moreno's personal life. Lawyers for Assange said he may risk torture and his life would be in danger if he were to be extradited to the United States. The arrest, after years holed up in a few cramped rooms at the embassy, represented one of the most sensational turns in a tumultuous life that has transformed the computer programmer into a fugitive wanted by the United States. "The whole House will welcome the news this morning that the Metropolitan Police have arrested Julian Assange, arrested for breach of bail after nearly seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy," May said. Ecuador's foreign minister said his country was not aware of any active extradition requests for Assange before it terminated his asylum. Supporters of Assange said Ecuador had betrayed him at the behest of Washington, illegally ended his asylum and engineered a dark moment for press freedom. "Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges," Barry Pollack, a lawyer for Assange, said in a statement reacting to the U.S. indictment. His admirers have hailed Assange as a hero for exposing what they describe as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. His detractors have painted him as a dangerous figure complicit in Russian efforts to undermine the West and U.S. security, and dispute that he is a journalist. "Under the guise of transparency, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have effectively acted as an arm of the Russian intelligence services for years," U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican, said. "Hopefully, he will now face justice." The Kremlin said it hoped Assange's rights would not be violated. WikiLeaks angered Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that laid bare critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family. Assange made international headlines in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. U.S. INVESTIGATION Assange's U.S. indictment arose from a long-running criminal investigation dating back to the administration of former President Barack Obama. It was triggered in part by WikiLeaks' publication in 2010 of U.S. military reports about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the diplomatic communications - disclosures that embarrassed the United States and strained relations with allies. The Justice Department said Assange was arrested under an extradition treaty between the United States and Britain. The indictment said Assange in March 2010 engaged in a conspiracy to assist Manning, formerly named Bradley Manning, in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications. Manning's lawyers demanded the release of the former intelligence analyst, jailed last month after being held in contempt by a judge in Virginia for refusing to testify before a grand jury, and said "continued detention would be purely punitive." A Swedish lawyer representing the alleged rape victim said she would push to have prosecutors reopen the case, but a retired senior prosecutor and chairman of NGO Victim Support Sweden said that may be difficult. Britain said no person was above the law. "Julian Assange is no hero, he has hidden from the truth for years and years," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said. "It's not so much Julian Assange being held hostage in the Ecuadorean embassy, it's actually Julian Assange holding the Ecuadorean embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them." Friends of Assange said his solitary existence in the embassy was tough on him. "It was a miserable existence and I could see it was a strain on him, but a strain he managed rather well," said Vaughan Smith, a friend who had visited Assange. "The thing that was most difficult for Julian was the solitude." "He was very tough, but the last year in particular was very difficult. He was constantly being surveilled and spied upon. There was no privacy for him," Smith said. Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006. The website published secret official information, infuriating the United States and other countries. WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated his political asylum in violation of international law. "Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom," said Edward Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor who fled to Moscow after revealing massive U.S. intelligence gathering. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton and Costas Pitas; Additional reporting by Alistair Smout, Andrew MacAskill, Henry Nicholls, Peter Nicholls, Dylan Martinez in London; Anna Ringstrom, Simon Johnson and Niklas Pollard in Stockholm; Mark Hosenball, Sarah N. Lynch and Makini Brice in Washington; Nathan Layne in New York; Sabela Ojea in Madrid; Alexandra Valencia in Quito; and Julia Cobb and Helen Murphy in Bogota; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton and Will Dunham; Editing by Hugh Lawson,; Alistair Bell and Grant McCool) London (AFP) - Julian Assange has been widely denounced as a conspiracy theorist fleeing from justice, but the revelation Thursday of a US extradition warrant against the transparency campaigner supports a key reason he gave for going into hiding. The 47-year-old Australian was on Thursday arrested by British police at Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been holed up since 2012. They held him for breaking his bail conditions relating to sexual assault claims lodged in Sweden -- since dropped -- as well as a previously undisclosed US extradition warrant. Assange had always denied the Swedish allegations, saying they were politically motivated and expressing fears of a plot to transfer him to the United States to face trial there. At the time the claims were made 2010, he was the frontman of WikiLeaks as the whistleblowing website exposed government secrets worldwide, with particular focus on the US. Transparency and anti-war campaigners hailed his work revealing the death of civilians, torture and clandestine military operations with the release of 500,000 US documents on the Iraq and Afghan wars. But the United States and its allies accused him of risking lives by revealing information on sources, intelligence techniques and key infrastructure sites. Following his arrest, Wikileaks said that "powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him". - Russia links - Assange was initially supported by human rights groups and newspapers that once worked with him to edit and publish the war logs. But many were also horrified when WikiLeaks dumped the documents unredacted online, including the names of informants. When in 2016 a UN panel declared that Assange had been detained arbitrarily, one of his previous media partners, The Guardian, dismissed the idea and said he should face justice. There have since been questions about his relationship with Russia, with WikiLeaks identified in independent prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe into interference in the 2016 US election. Story continues Mueller found that Russian government actors hacked White House hopeful Hillary Clinton's campaign "and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks". - War logs exposed - Born in Townsville, Queensland, in 1971, Assange has described a nomadic childhood and claims to have attended 37 schools before settling in Melbourne. As a teenager he discovered a talent for computer hacking, and although he has pleaded guilty to 25 such offences, he has only ever walked away with fines. He created WikiLeaks in 2006 with a group of like-minded activists and IT experts, to provide a secure way for whistleblowers to leak information. A confident speaker, he became its figurehead -- and a lightning rod for criticism. The most damaging leaks emerged in 2010, beginning with a video showing a US military Apache helicopter firing on and killing two journalists and several Iraqi civilians on a Baghdad street in 2007. It was followed by more than 90,000 classified US military files from the Afghan war, 400,000 from Iraq, and in November that year, around 250,000 US diplomatic cables covering almost every country in the world. - Living in a space station - He was arrested in Britain in December 2010 and a judge ordered his extradition to Sweden. Although the claims were dropped, he still faced arrest by British police for having jumped bail. Ecuador's then president, Rafael Correa, said Assange's human rights could be at risk and offered him refuge, but his successor Lenin Moreno, who took office in 2017, has had less patience. He has accused Assange of interfering in foreign affairs. Ecuador temporarily cut his internet connection last year, and last week said the Australian had "repeatedly violated" the terms of his stay. In the past, Assange said his time at the embassy was like living in a space station -- he exercised on a treadmill and used a sun lamp to make up for the lack of natural light. This week, his supporters said it had become a "Truman-show type situation", accusing the Ecuador authorities of gathering thousands of photographs and videos from inside the apartment. Its been two years since a Kentucky doctor was violently dragged off a United Airlines flight in an incident that quickly went viral and made headlines for weeks. Now, the doctor is speaking about the ordeal, revealing the toll it took on his life. On April 9, 2017, David Dao was asked to leave an oversold Louisville-bound flight from Chicagos OHare International Airport so airline employees could board the plane. Having paid for his ticket, Dao refused. The altercation saw Dao bloodied and bruised as officers with the Chicago Department of Aviation dragged him through the aisle of the aircraft. Footage of the incident sparked national outrage and went viral on social media. Dao said he found the video difficult to watch even months after the assault. I just cried, Dao told ABC News of the footage, adding that he doesnt remember the moments he was pulled from his seat because he hit his head on the low ceiling. After that, to be honest, I dont know what happened. RELATED: United Airlines CEO Ashamed After Kentucky Doctor Was Dragged from Plane: This Will Never Happen Again David Dao | ABC News Doa told ABC that he refused to give up his seat because he was heading back to Louisville to oversee the opening of a clinic for U.S. veterans. Dao, who is Vietnamese, added that he felt he was being discriminated against. He suffered a concussion, a broken nose and two missing teeth, he told ABC, noting that the situation escalated very fast. Dao said he struggled to deal with the attention in the wake of the ordeal, as details of his personal life surfaced in media reports. Get to the point, I have to hide, he told ABC, adding that he spent most of his time indoors after the incident. I cant. No. I stay for months. Months in the house. David Dao being dragged from plane Dao and the airline eventually reached a confidential settlement, which Daos lawyers said was amicable. He said that the first few months after the assault were horrible, as he was put on suicide watch by hospital staff and spent months learning to walk again. As the media storm continued, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz apologized to Dao in an interview with ABC. Story continues RELATED: Warning Signs to Look for If You Are Concerned Someone Is Suicidal That is not who our family at United is. You saw us at a bad moment, Munoz said. This can never, will never happen again on a United Airlines flight thats my promise. Months later, it was revealed that United Airlines would not be fined by the Department of Transportation for the assault. Now, he told ABC, Dao still has trouble sleeping, concentrating and maintaining his balance. Still, he said, the ordeal had an ultimately positive outcome. RELATED VIDEO: I Am Not Going! New Footage Shows United Airlines Passenger and Police Arguing Before Hes Dragged Off Plane Everything happens with a reason Airline business willing to change policy, he said. He told ABC that he is not angry with the officials who dragged him from the plane: They have a job to do. They had to do it. If they dont do it, they must lose their job. So, Im not angry with them or anything like this. Thats their job. In a statement to PEOPLE, airline spokesman Charles Hobart described the incident as a defining moment for the company. It is our responsibility to make sure we as a company and all of our 90,000 employees continue to learn from that experience. The changes we have implemented since that incident better serve our customers and further empower our employees, the spokesman said. This year, we are focused more than ever on our commitment to our customers, looking at every aspect of our business to ensure that we keep their best interests at the center of everything that we do, the statement continued. As our CEO Oscar Munoz has said, we at United never want anyone in the United family to forget the experience of Flight 3411. It makes us a better airline, a more caring company and a stronger team. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text home to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org. LONDON (AP) The Latest on the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London (all times local): 5 a.m. Friends of a Swedish software developer arrested in Ecuador as part of a probe into Julian Assange's alleged efforts to stave off his eviction from the country's embassy are describing him as a soft-spoken geek being unfairly accused of plotting to destabilize the government. A senior Ecuadorian official said Ola Bini was arrested Thursday at Quito's airport as he was preparing to board a flight for Japan. Authorities haven't presented any charges against Bini but the official said they are looking into whether he was part of a possible effort by Assange and Wikileaks to blackmail President Lenin Moreno. Vijay Prashad runs a Marxist publishing house based in India and considers himself a close friend of Bini. He said Bini is "the last person who would ever be involved in an attempt overthrow a government." Prashad said he last saw Bini a few months ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He said he didn't know if Bini had any links to Wikileaks or Assange, adding that his work as a privacy advocate are being unfairly equated by the Ecuadorians with criminal activity. The arrest came after British police dragged Assange out of Ecuador's embassy when his seven-year asylum was revoked. ___ 4:30 a.m. Foreign Minister Marise Payne says Australia remains "completely opposed" to the death penalty amid fears that Australian native Julian Assange could be exposed to such punishment if he is extradited to the United States. Australian consular officials plan to visit the WikiLeaks founder in a London jail on Friday a day after he was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy where he'd been holed up nearly seven years. For now, he faces a single computer conspiracy charge in the U.S. that does not carry the death penalty, but his supporters fear more serious charges may be brought later. Payne said Friday the U.K. had sought assurances from the U.S. that Assange would not be exposed to the death penalty. Story continues Assange plans to fight extradition, but Australian leaders have indicated they wouldn't intervene. ___ 2:30 a.m. A senior Ecuadorian official says a Swedish software developer living in Quito and who is allegedly close to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested as authorities attempt to dismantle a blackmail ring that in recent days had threatened to retaliate against President Lenin Moreno. The official said Ola Bini was arrested Thursday at Quito's airport as he was preparing to board a flight for Japan. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity and didn't provide any additional details about Bini. On a blog, a Swedish man by the same name describes himself as a software developer working in Quito for the Center for Digital Autonomy, a group based in Ecuador and Spain focused on privacy, security and cryptography issues. It makes no mention of any affiliation with Wikileaks. On Twitter earlier Thursday, Bini called claims by the Interior Minister that Russian hackers and someone close to Wikileaks were working inside Ecuador "very worrisome" news. "This seems like a witch hunt to me," Bini wrote. The arrest came after British police dragged Assange out of Ecuador's embassy when his seven-year asylum was revoked. By Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador. --- 1:40 a.m. Hillary Clinton says newly arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange needs to "answer for what he has done." The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former secretary of state weighed in on Assange on Thursday at an event in New York for her and husband Bill Clinton's speaking tour. WikiLeaks' publication of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers during the 2016 election season hurt Clinton's presidential campaign. Assange was arrested by British police Thursday at the Ecuadorian Embassy where he had been holed up for nearly seven years under political asylum. The U.S. has charged him with conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer at the Pentagon. Clinton says, "The bottom line is that he has to answer for what he has done." ___ 1:20 a.m. Ecuador's interior minister says a person suspected of being a key player for Wikileaks and close to Julian Assange has been detained at Quito's airport trying to fly to Japan. Maria Paula Romo says the person arrested allegedly conspired against the Ecuadorian government. The Ecuadorian official said the arrest Thursday afternoon was the result of an investigation to verify information given by police. She did not identify the person. British police dragged WikiLeaks founder Assange out of Ecuador's embassy on Thursday after his seven-year asylum was revoked, paving the way for his extradition to the United States. ___ 10:45 p.m. Australia's prime minister has ruled out intervention in a potential U.S. extradition of Australian citizen Julian Assange on a charge of computer intrusion conspiracy. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australian Broadcasting Corp. the charge is a "matter for the United States" and has nothing to do with Australia. Morrison says Assange is receiving standard consular assistance offered to Australians in trouble in other countries. ___ 9:35 p.m. Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa is criticizing what he considers a "double standard" by Western media and governments who he says have been quick to condemn Julian Assange for publishing sensitive information about U.S. national security interests. Correa granted Assange asylum in 2012. In an interview with The Associated Press, he is harshly critical of his successor's decision to expel the Wikileaks founder from Ecuador's embassy in London. Ecuador's former president said that "although Julian Assange denounced war crimes, he's only the person supplying the information." Correa said "It's the New York Times, the Guardian and El Pais publishing it. Why aren't those journalists and media owners thrown in jail?" British police on Thursday hauled a bearded and shouting Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy where he was holed up for nearly seven years, and the U.S. charged the WikiLeaks founder with conspiring to obtain government secrets. ___ 8:35 p.m. Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno is lashing out again at Julian Assange, calling him a "miserable hacker" and "spoiled brat" who was disrespectful to officials charged with taking care of him at the country's embassy in London. Moreno repeated allegations that Assange smearing of his own fecal matter on the walls of the embassy building and said that was a sign of how the WikiLeaks founder viewed Ecuador as an insignificant, third-rate country. "When you're given shelter, cared for and provided food you don't denounce the owner of the house," said Moreno to applause at an event outside Quito. He added that Ecuador will "be more careful in giving asylum to people who are really worth it and not miserable hackers whose only goal is to destabilize governments." In his words, "We are tolerant, calm people but we're not stupid." ___ 8:25 p.m. The French lawyer for Julian Assange says he wants President Emmanuel Macron to intervene to bring him from a London jail to France, where his small child lives. Juan Branco suggested in an interview hours after the arrest Thursday of the Wikileaks founder that he could risk life in prison on trumped-up charges if extradited to the U.S. Assange faces U.S. charges related to publication of tens of thousands of classified government documents, with an extradition hearing May 2. For Branco, Assange is a journalist who "revealed information to the general public about crimes against humanity, war crimes." He said the arrest is "some kind of revenge." Branco spoke to Assange last week and said he last saw him at Christmas at the Ecuadorian Embassy. ___ 8:15 p.m. Ecuador's government says that as tensions with Julian Assange mounted in recent weeks, the WikiLeaks founder acted out with hostility against his hosts at the country's embassy in London. Foreign Minister Jose Valencia spoke to lawmakers Thursday and described what he said were Assange's repeated violations of the conditions of his asylum that led the government to expel him from the diplomatic mission after almost seven years and hand him over to British authorities. He said what began as erratic behavior by Assange roller skating and playing soccer in embassy hallways and listening to loud music at all hours evolved in recent months into aggressive behavior toward embassy staff. Valencia said that Assange on occasions hit staff charged with guaranteeing his wellbeing and accused embassy officials of being U.S. spies looking to exchange information on WikiLeaks in exchange for debt relief for Ecuador. ___ 7:30 p.m. The legal team for former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning says the indictment of Julian Assange shows prosecutors didn't need her testimony to criminally charge the WikiLeaks founder. The U.S. Justice Department charged Julian Assange on Thursday with conspiring with Manning to break into a classified government computer. Manning has been jailed for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury in Virginia that is investigating WikiLeaks. Assange is accused of agreeing to help Manning steal classified information by trying to crack a password to a U.S. government computer system. His attempts were unsuccessful. Manning's lawyers noted Assange's indictment was returned more than a year before their client refused to testify. In a statement, they said Manning should be released because her continued detention would be "purely punitive." The lawyers plan to raise these issues in a brief before an appellate court Thursday. The Justice Department charged Assange after he was taken into custody in connection with a U.S. extradition request and for skipping bail when he sought asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London in 2012. ___ 5:55 p.m. U.S. President Donald Trump is claiming to "know nothing about WikiLeaks" despite past praise for the anti-secrecy organization. Trump was asked in the Oval Office on Thursday about the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London. The president, who was sitting next to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, said "It's not my thing" and didn't elaborate. Trump praised WikiLeaks more than 100 times during the stretch run of the 2016 presidential campaign. That fall, WikiLeaks released stolen embarrassing emails from the campaign of Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. A disheveled Assange was hauled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy where he hid for more than 6 years. U.S. charges related to the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents could bring a court battle over attempts to extradite him. ___ 5:25 p.m. Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa is accusing the nation's current leader of retaliating against Julian Assange for WikiLeaks' publication of documents that allegedly implicate President Lenin Moreno in corruption. Correa who led the South American nation when Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador's London embassy said Thursday that the decision to revoke asylum is "cowardly." In a stream of remarks on Twitter, Correa criticized Moreno for allowing British authorities to arrest Assange, and linked that to WikiLeaks' disclosure about an offshore bank account allegedly linked to Moreno's family and friends. Correa said the decision "will never been forgotten by all of humanity." Former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino also rejected allegations by Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo claiming that a close collaborator of WikiLeaks had traveled with him to several countries this year, accusing her of "inventing a story." ___ 5:00 p.m. An independent U.N. human rights expert says Julian Assange's arrest won't deter his efforts to determine if the privacy rights of the WikiLeaks founder were violated. UN Special Rapporteur Joe Cannataci had planned to travel to London on April 25 to meet with Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where Assange sought asylum in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden. Cannataci says he still plans to keep the meeting despite Assange's arrest at the embassy on Thursday. Cannataci said in a statement: "I will visit him and speak to him in a police station or elsewhere in the U.K. where Cannataci in a statement. He says the U.N. human rights office plans to ask the British government to give him access to Assange on April 25. And if Assange is extradited to the United States by then, Cannataci said "then I will direct my request for access to the government of the United States." ___ 4:15 p.m. Julian Assange's lawyer says the WikiLeaks founder will fight his extradition to the United States. Attorney Jennifer Robinson sounded defiant as she spoke to reporters after Assange was arrested in London on Thursday morning. She said the arrest sets a dangerous precedent for the rights of journalists. Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he took asylum in 2012 while facing extradition to Sweden. Robinson suggested Assange had long said he would be arrested if he was expelled if Ecuador expelled him from the embassy. She says at least he can now get medical care while in jail. The defense team could fight attempts to extradite Assange to the United States to face charges related to the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents. ___ 3:30 p.m. Russia is criticizing the way in which London police arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the foreign embassy where he took asylum in 2012 and since remained in hiding. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday the way Assange was treated gave "the full impression of an open and rude disregard for the human dignity of the arrested." She said: Russia hopes "all the rights of Julian Assange will be respected." Ecuador's president says his government withdrew Assange's asylum status almost seven years after he sought refuge in the country's embassy in London, alleging "repeated violations of international conventions and daily-life protocols." ___ 3:00 p.m. A judge in London has found WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange guilty of breaching his bail at Westminster Magistrates' Court. Judge Michael Snow quickly issued his verdict on Thursday after Assange appeared in the courtroom where his supporters packed the public gallery. Assange faces a sentence of up to 12 months for the conviction, and has serious charges pending in the United States. The basis of Assange's defense was that he couldn't expect a fair trial in British courts as the U.K.'s purpose was to "secure his delivery" to the United States ___ 2:45 p.m. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has entered an innocent plea to a charge that he failed to surrender to custody under an order for his extradition to Sweden. Assange faced sexual assault allegations in Sweden when he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London 2012. The sexual assault charges have since been dropped, but a charge of skipping bail remained in place. He entered the plea at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday. He is also facing a potential court battle over attempts to extradite him to the United States to answer charges related to the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents. ___ 2:30 p.m. Julian Assange is appearing in a London court as it considers a U.S. extradition request on criminal charges over the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents. Assange saluted supporters who packed a public gallery at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday and gave them a thumb's-up. Wearing a black suit and polo shirt, Assange calmly sat reading a Gore Vidal book while waiting for his lawyers to arrive. Police in London arrested the WikiLeaks founder at the Ecuadorian embassy, where he took refuge in August 2012. ___ 2:15 p.m. The U.S. Justice Department has charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer. The charge was announced Thursday after Assange was taken into custody in London in connection with a U.S. extradition request, as well as for breaching U.K. bail conditions in 2012. His lawyer has previously said that Assange planned to fight any U.S. charges against him. The indictment accuses Assange of assisting Manning, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, in cracking a password that helped Manning infiltrate Pentagon computers. ___ 2:10 p.m. Ecuador's government says that as part of its decision to expel Julian Assange from its embassy in London, it has withdrawn the Ecuadorian citizenship he was granted last year in a failed attempt to end the activist's tumultuous stay at its diplomatic mission. Ecuador also accused supporters of WikiLeaks and two Russian hackers of attempting to destabilize their country. Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said in Quito a close collaborator of WikiLeaks had traveled with former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino this year to several countries, including Peru, Spain and Venezuela, in an attempt to undermine the government. She did not identify the individual but said their name, as well as two Russian hackers working in Ecuador, would be turned over to judicial authorities in the coming hours. ___ 2 p.m. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May says the arrest of Julian Assange shows that "no one is above the law." May was speaking to the House of Commons after the arrest of the WikiLeaks founder, who was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy Thursday after taking refuge there for seven years to avoid extradition. Ecuador announced it was revoking Assange's asylum status, citing repeated violations of international conventions. Assange is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates court later Thursday on allegations of breaching bail conditions dating to 2012, and on extradition charges to the United States. ___ 1:50 p.m. A U.S. official says the Justice Department is preparing to announce charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The official spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because no charges have yet been announced. The exact nature of the charges was not immediately known. Assange was arrested Thursday in London by police for breaching 2012 bail conditions as well as on an extradition request from the United States. --By Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C. ___ 1:40 p.m. Sweden's Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren says "we have not been able to decide on the available information" whether a stalled investigation into alleged sexual offenses against Julian Assange could be reopened if he returns to Sweden before the statute of limitations lapses in August 2020. In 2017, Swedish prosecutors dropped a long-running inquiry into a rape claim against Assange, saying there was no way to detain or charge him "in the foreseeable future" because of his protected status inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Assange was arrested earlier Thursday at the embassy, where he had been holed up for seven years ___ 1:10 p.m. Edward Snowden, the former security contractor who leaked classified information about U.S. surveillance programs, says the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a blow to media freedom. "Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the U.K.'s secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of--like it or not--award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books," Snowden said in a tweet. "Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom." Snowden was charged by the United States in 2013 of violating the country's espionage act. He was granted asylum by Russia that year and the asylum has been extended until at least 2020. ___ 12:50 p.m. London police say they have arrested Julian Assange on extradition charges to the United States, as well as for breaching U.K. bail conditions. Scotland Yard said in a statement Thursday that Assange was "further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act." The WikiLeaks founder sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012, after he was released on bail while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations. The accusations have since been dropped but he was still wanted for jumping bail. Separately, he has been under U.S. Justice Department scrutiny for years for WikiLeaks' role in publishing thousands of government secrets. ___ 12:05 p.m. A senior member of Germany's opposition Left party says Europe must not allow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States for trial. Sevim Dagdelen said in a statement that the withdrawal of Assange's political asylum by Ecuador and his subsequent arrest by British police was a "scandal, a violation of international law, and at the same time a severe blow to independent journalism." She says it is the German government's "duty" now to prevent Britain, which earlier Thursday was granted an extension to its departure from the European Union, from extraditing Assange to the U.S., "where he faces life imprisonment or even the death penalty for exposing U.S. war crimes." ___ 12 p.m. Julian Assange's attorney Jennifer Robinson says the WikiLeaks founder had been arrested on an extradition request from the United States as well as on charges of breaching his bail conditions. In a tweet, Robinson said Assange "has been arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request." The U.S. Justice Department inadvertently revealed the existence of a sealed criminal case against Assange in a court filing last year. It's not clear what he's been accused of. Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who leaked a trove of classified material to WikiLeaks, was jailed last month after she refused to testify before a grand jury. In a statement Thursday, Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said: "We are aware of the reports that Julian Assange was taken into custody by United Kingdom authorities." ___ 11:50 a.m. The Swedish woman who alleged that she was raped by Julian Assange during a visit to Stockholm in 2010 has welcomed his arrest in London. Elisabeth Massi Fritz, the lawyer for the unnamed woman, says news of Assange's arrest earlier Thursday came as "a shock to my client" and that it was something "we have been waiting and hoping for since 2012." Massi Fritz said in a text message sent to The Associated Press that "we are going to do everything" to have the Swedish case reopened "so Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape." Massi Fritz said "no rape victim should have to wait nine years to see justice be served." In 2017, Sweden's top prosecutor dropped a long-running inquiry into a rape claim against Assange, saying there was no way to have Assange detained or charged within a foreseeable future because of his protected status inside the embassy. ___ 11:35 a.m. WikiLeaks has accused "powerful actors," including the CIA, of a "sophisticated" effort to dehumanize Julian Assange. The comments by the organization Assange founded came soon after he was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had been holed up for seven years. In a tweet, the organization posted a photo of Assange with the words: "This man is a son, a father, a brother. He has won dozens of journalism awards. He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanize, delegitimize and imprison him. #ProtectJulian." ___ 11:15 a.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says Russia wants Julian Assange's rights to be observed following his arrest. Shortly after Assange's arrest in London, Dmitry Peskov told reporters that he could not comment on the overall case. But, he said, "We of course hope that all of his rights will be observed." ___ 11 a.m. Ecuador's president says his government withdrew asylum status for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange almost seven years after he sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London, citing "repeated violations of international conventions and daily-life protocols." Lenin Moreno announced the "sovereign decision" in a statement accompanied by a video on Twitter on Thursday. Assange hasn't left the embassy since August 2012 for fear that if he steps off Ecuador's diplomatic soil he would be arrested and extradited to the U.S. for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks. London police arrested Assange at the embassy Thursday on a court warrant issued in 2012, when he failed to surrender to the court. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Moreno for breaking the impasse, saying on Twitter that Assange "is no hero and no one is above the law." ___ 10:45 a.m. Police in London say they've arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy on a court warrant dating back to 2012. In a statement Thursday, police said Assange has been taken into "custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster Magistrates' Court as soon as is possible." Assange hasn't left the embassy since August 2012 for fear that if he steps off Ecuador's diplomatic soil he will be arrested and extradited to the U.S. for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the arrest of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange here: https://www.apnews.com/WikiLeaks Vilnius (AFP) - Centrist Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said Tuesday he would consider moving Lithuania's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the disputed city of Jerusalem, should he win May's presidential elections. Skvernelis said that moving the mission could lead to closer ties with Israel and the United States, which Lithuania sees as a key security buffer against Russia. The embassy transfer "could bring new impetus for relations with Israel, both in the areas of security and trade," Skvernelis told reporters as he hit the presidential campaign trail to outline his foreign policy priorities. "We would also send a signal that the United States is our partner not only in words but that we also side with it in bitter questions under discussions," he added. President Donald Trump's decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem ruptured decades of international consensus that the city's disputed status should be settled as part of a two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who also claim it as the capital of their future state. Senior politicians in fellow EU states Czech Republic and Romania have said they are also considering moving their embassies to Jerusalem but no decisions have been taken to this date. The EU as a whole holds the position that Jerusalem's status must be negotiated by Israel and the Palestinians. Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. Skvernelis insisted on Tuesday that his nation "must not be afraid to differ from neighbouring states", saying cultural and security links made Israel one of Lithuania's closest allies. The legacy of the Holocaust and close alignment with the US are among the reasons why Lithuania has become one of Israel's closest friends within the EU over the last decade. Outgoing president Dalia Grybauskaite, who after two consecutive terms is not running for re-election, "would not comment on election programmes", her spokeswoman said. Story continues Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said Tuesday that Skvernelis' remarks did not mark any change in Lithuania's official policy because "he was talking as a presidential candidate, and not the prime minister". "The official Lithuanian position has not changed: Jerusalem's status must be solved through negotiations and both sides should refrain from unilateral actions and decisions," the minister told AFP. By law, moving the embassy would require the approval of both the government and the president. Lithuania will hold a two-round presidential election on May 12 and 26. In recent opinion polls, Skvernelis was trailing independent economist Gitanas Nauseda and conservative ex-finance minister Ingrida Simonyte. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) California congressman Devin Nunes is suing a media company for $150 million, saying it engaged in "character assassination" with a 2018 story that linked him to a yacht where prostitution allegedly took place. A lawyer for the central California Republican filed the lawsuit against The McClatchy Co. and others in a Virginia court on Monday. Nunes said in his complaint that McClatchy conspired to spread false and damaging information, and cited a 2018 report by The Fresno Bee newspaper in Fresno, California. The report detailed a 2016 lawsuit filed by an employee of a winery in which Nunes has a partnership stake. The charitable arm of the winery auctioned off an outing that the employee alleged involved cocaine use and prostitution. The news report did not claim that Nunes was on the yacht or that he was involved in the event. The lawsuit said Nunes was not on the yacht. Nunes has been in a running feud with The Fresno Bee. Before last year's general election, he sent out a thick mailer calling the newspaper a "propaganda machine." "In article after article, McClatchy and its reporters exhibited an institutional hatred for Nunes, spite, ill-will and the intent to hurt Nunes and impugn his character," the complaint states. McClatchy spokeswoman Jeanne Segal said Nunes' lawsuit is "wholly without merit" and that it stands by the reporting of The Fresno Bee. The company has its headquarters in Sacramento, California. "The lawsuit represents a baseless attack on local journalism and a free press," she said in a statement issued Tuesday. "At a time when local journalism is facing more pressing and urgent challenges, the lawsuit is an unproductive distraction and a misuse of the judicial system." Steven Biss, a Charlottesville, Virginia, attorney who filed the 43-page complaint, did not respond to phone and email requests for comment. Nunes' congressional office did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent by email and phone. Story continues The congressman faces steep odds of prevailing with the lawsuit, said Boston-based attorney Jeff Robbins, who was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Nunes has to prove that the Bee made a false statement about him "knowing it was false or in reckless disregard of whether it was true or false," Robbins said in an interview. "That is a very difficult standard to meet under any circumstances, and so Nunes begins in a hole," he said. Last month, Nunes sued Twitter and some of its users for more than $250 million, accusing them of defamation. The defendants include two anonymous parody accounts, "Devin Nunes' Mom" and "Devin Nunes' Cow." LEESBURG, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi castigated Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday for comments he made during congressional hearings this week about the federal probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. "Let me just say, I'm very, very dismayed and disappointed that the chief law enforcement officer of our country is going off the rails yesterday and today," Pelosi told reporters at a Democratic Party retreat in Virginia. "He is attorney general of the United States of America, not the attorney general of Donald Trump." Pelosi said Democrats first of all want to see Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and any links to the Trump campaign. Russia's activities were an assault on U.S. democracy - "there is no doubt about that," Pelosi said. During two congressional hearings this week, Barr defended his handling of the 400-page report Mueller submitted to him on March 22 after a two-year investigation. It was the attorney general released a four-page letter to Congress providing a broad outline of its assessments. Barr said he would make public a redacted version of the report next week. Democrats have been calling for full disclosure. Barr, who was appointed by Trump, said on Wednesday he would look into whether U.S. agencies illegally spied on Trump's 2016 campaign, but acknowledged under sharp questioning by lawmakers that there was no evidence of wrongdoing. (Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Alistair Bell) Julian Assange Julian Assange. Photo: Wikimedia Commons WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been indicted on charges accusing him of conspiring with former Army intelligence analysis Chelsea Manning to share leak classified information. The indictment and arrest came the same day Ecuador rescinded asylum for Assange, who had been staying in its embassy in London to avoid extradition to the United States. The charges were revealed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The one-count indictment includes allegations of conspiring to illegally accessing a computer and concealing Mannings identity as the source of the leak. In fact, the allegations in the indictment begins with Manning's name. The case already is being compared to the publication of the Pentagon Papers. Military analyst Daniel Ellsberg was charged after the release of the documents tracing the history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, but the case was dismissed. News media were not prosecuted for publication. Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Unions Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a statement Thursday: Any prosecution by the United States of Mr. Assange for Wikileaks publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations. Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest." Assange's legal team includes Washington attorney Barry Pollack, who left Miller & Chevalier last year to become a partner at the boutique Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber. Read the indictment: Read more: The Mueller Probe Was a Gift to the White-Collar Bar Charges Against Assange Put International Legal Team in Spotlight Lawyer for Assange Leaves Miller & Chevalier as Mueller Probe Heats Up Moscow (AFP) - A Moscow court on Thursday ruled to move Michael Calvey, a prominent American investor who has been behind bars since mid-February on controversial fraud charges, from pre-trial jail to house arrest. The move came after some of Moscow's most powerful figures called on the Kremlin to let him go, warning his arrest could discourage the foreign investment Russia's economy badly needs. Judge Yulia Safina of Moscow's Basmanny District Court accepted a request filed by state investigators and ordered Calvey released "in the courtroom," an AFP correspondent said. Addressing the judge in Russian from his glass cage, Calvey promised to abide by the conditions of the house arrest. "To run from Russia for me would be to admit my guilt," said Calvey, who looked gaunt and did not smile. Calvey will be confined to his apartment located in an upscale building in central Moscow. His lawyers said he would wear a house arrest monitor. The founder of the Baring Vostok investment fund, established in 1994, was arrested in February with five other individuals, and accused of defrauding Vostochny Bank of 2.5 billion rubles ($38.7 million). Calvey is seen as a Kremlin-friendly investor who has steered clear of politics and his arrest has shocked Western business circles. His multi-billion-dollar equity firm has invested in some of Russia's biggest companies including Yandex, the Russian search giant, and Ozon, a top online retailer. Calvey's release from pre-trial jail came after a Russian court this week ordered the release from house arrest of renowned film and theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov, who is on trial on embezzlement charges. Calvey and his firm maintain that the case against them is fabricated and being used as an instrument in a shareholder dispute. - 'I still believe in Russia' - Apparently keen to avoid the politicisation of his case Calvey insists that Russia remains a safe investment destination. Story continues "Despite this corporate conflict, which has turned into criminal prosecution, I would like to reiterate what I have always said: I still believe in Russia's investment potential," Calvey said. On Thursday, the court also ruled to move Alexei Kordichev, a banker who was arrested along with Calvey, to house arrest, a Baring Vostok spokesman said. An investigator, Lyudmila Samoilenko, said in court that Calvey has three children as well as "stable connections in Moscow, (and) a permanent job" and has given to charity. Given these factors, investigators appealed to soften Calvey's pre-trial conditions, she added. The court had previously denied requests to free the US investor. Lawyers said it was too early to celebrate, stressing Calvey wanted his associates to be released. "He believes it is not a victory as long as his associates are in jail," said attorney Dmitry Savochkin. This week a court extended for three months the detention of French national Philippe Delpal, also arrested along with Calvey and who has two young children. Thursday's decision provides for house arrest until Saturday, at which point investigators would have to extend the measure. Calvey's lawyers said he most likely would not be sent back to pre-trial jail. Investigators say in 2017 a firm controlled by Calvey owed 2.5 billion rubles to Vostochniy Bank and paid the debt with a 59.9 percent stake in Luxembourg's International Financial Technology Group (IFTG), which was valued at three billion rubles. The investigators allege IFTG's real value was only 600,000 rubles. Calvey has offered to sell the IFTG shares on the open market to see how much they are really worth. Several prominent figures have spoken out in support of Calvey, including the Kremlin's business ombudsman Boris Titov and Russia's sovereign wealth fund head Kirill Dmitriyev. Baring Vostok says it has invested more than $2.8 billion in 80 companies in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other ex-Soviet countries. Moscow (AFP) - Russian lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill that would allow Moscow to cut the country's internet traffic from foreign servers, in a key second reading paving the way for legislation that activists fear is a step towards online isolation. Critics call the bill a form of "digital slavery," that threatens censorship and possibly a sealed network similar to that in North Korea. It is set to take effect on November 1 once it formally becomes law. The proposed measures would create technology to monitor internet routing and steer Russian internet traffic away from foreign servers, ostensibly to prevent a foreign country from shutting it down. Lawmakers in the State Duma, parliament's lower house, voted 320 to 15 to pass the bill. Authors of the initiative say Russia must ensure the security of its networks after US President Donald Trump unveiled a new American cybersecurity strategy last year that said Russia had carried out cyber attacks with impunity. The legislation has been dubbed the "sovereign internet" bill by Russian media. Critics say implementing the measures would be expensive and give vast censorship powers to the government's new traffic monitoring centre. Thousands of people rallied last month against this and other bills that critics say aim at restricting information and communication online. Last month President Vladimir Putin signed controversial laws that allow courts to fine and briefly jail people for showing disrespect towards authorities, and block media for publishing "fake news". - 'Web censorship' - "It's a bill on digital slavery and the introduction of censorship for the web," said Sergei Ivanov, a member of the nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party. "I've never seen such a blatant and cynical bill which is being pushed through like this amid claims that not a penny will be spent from the budget," he added. Russian business news website RBK reported in March that implementing the measures would cost an estimated 30 billion rubles ($466 million). Story continues The bill's authors insist that the measures only outline a plan to make Russian internet "more secure and reliable". "The bill's popular name -- 'The Chinese Firewall' -- has nothing to do with our initiative," said Leonid Levin, a lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party which dominates Russian parliament. Levin said that ahead of the second reading lawmakers had looked through 58 proposed amendments and that the legislation included comments from critics and industry experts. "Significant work had been done," he added. Internet activist Artyom Kozlyuk said however the amended text was even more vague than the previous version and "did not change for the better." Kozlyuk, who coordinates the Roscomsvoboda anti-censorship organisation, added the bill had been sailing through parliament "very quickly" despite pleas from the public and the communications industry to pause and have a proper discussion. While it would be technically difficult to completely cut off Russia from the world wide web, if the bill passes, "it will create serious economic risks for the industry and for the country," Kozlyuk added. The bill is set to take effect after a third reading in the State Duma and a vote in the upper house, both of which are seen as a formality. Then the bill would be formally signed into law by Putin. The Kremlin insisted it has no desire to isolate Russian internet users. "No one is suggesting cutting the internet," spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, adding that the protesters suffered from "delusions." By Valerie Volcovici (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate confirmed former energy lobbyist David Bernhardt as the next Interior Secretary on Thursday, even as coastal-state senators from both parties raise concerns about his plans to vastly expand offshore drilling. Senators approved Bernhardt in a 56 to 41 vote. Bernhardt replaces former Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke as the head of the Interior Department, which manages federal and tribal lands and waters and is key to President Donald Trump's efforts to boost domestic crude oil, natural gas and coal production. He was approved by the Republican-controlled Senate over the objections of Democrats concerned that his former lobbying for industry means he will favor energy and minerals development over conservation. Republican senators including Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida have also raised concerns over the Interior Department's looming five-year offshore drilling plan, which could expand drilling into new parts of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic. Coastal states like Florida are concerned about the impact of a spill on their tourism industries. But in a sign that Bernhardt has assuaged some of those concerns in recent days, both Rubio and Scott voted for Berhardt's confirmation. Republican senators from North Carolina and South Carolina, two other states opposed to drilling off their coastlines, also voted to confirm Bernhardt. "I am VERY confident that when all is said & done no oil drilling is coming to our coastline," Rubio said on Twitter ahead of the vote. Rubio and Scott had sent a letter to Bernhardt last month urging him to keep Florida protected from offshore drilling and honor a promise Zinke had made prior to his resignation that Florida would be exempted from the plan. Democratic senators continued to urge that the Senate reject Bernhardt's confirmation because of his close ties to some of the industries that the Interior Department would regulate. Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, for example, asked the Department of Justice earlier this week to investigate whether Bernhardt was in violation of lobbying disclosure laws. Add these troubling allegations to the long list of reasons why the nomination of David Bernhardt should be stopped, or at minimum delayed, until the Senate and the American people get all of the facts, said Wyden. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) In a victory for womens rights in South Korea, the countrys top court ordered the government to decriminalize abortion Thursday, reforming a 66-year-long widespread ban on the procedure. South Koreas current laws governing abortion are some of the strictest in the developed world, criminalizing the practice in most cases, and only allowing for exceptions in cases of rape, incest or if a womans or girls health is endangered by the pregnancy. In these instances, abortions must be performed within the 24 hours and are subject to spousal consent. Women who terminate pregnancies can face fines of up to KRW 2 million ($1,850) or one year in jail, and medical professionals assisting with abortions can face prison terms of up to two years if convicted. Thursdays ruling by South Koreas Constitutional Court was related to an appeal by a doctor who was prosecuted for carrying out 70 abortions between 2013 and 2017, the Associated Press reports. The court ruling ordered South Koreas National Assembly to create legislation easing the current regulations by the end of 2020, calling the current abortion law incompatible with the constitution. Womens rights activists and campaigners rallied outside the court in scenes of jubilation when the ruling was announced, after demonstrations had taken place to protest the ban on March 30. The case has polarized debate in South Korea in recent weeks, with anti-abortion activists carrying placards featuring fetuses also rallying outside the court. Abortions will always happen, regardless of the law. This judgment means that they should be carried out safely and legally, and that women and girls are treated with compassion and respect for their human rights and their reproductive autonomy, said Roseann Rife, Amnesty Internationals East Asia Research Director, in a statement responding to the ruling. Their dignity must be front and centre in any new legal framework on abortion. By Roberta Rampton and Soyoung Kim WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed a willingness to hold a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but said in talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that Washington would leave sanctions in place on Pyongyang. Trump and Moon, in the Oval Office, discussed the possibility of Moon having an inter-Korean summit with Kim soon as a way to boost dialogue between the United States and North Korea on denuclearization. North Korea, which has suspended nuclear tests and missile launches, has been pressing for sanctions relief but has not taken meaningful steps toward dismantling its nuclear weapons program. Trump and Kim have met twice, in Hanoi in February and Singapore last June, building good will but failing to agree on a deal to lift sanctions in exchange for North Korea abandoning its nuclear and missile programs. "It could happen. A third summit could happen. And its step by step. Its not a fast process. I've never said it would be. Its step by step," Trump said. Asked by reporters whether he was prepared to ease some sanctions on North Korea, Trump said he and Moon were discussing "certain humanitarian things" and the possibility of South Korea helping the North with food. He did not rule out participating in a three-way summit with both Kim and Moon. Of sanctions, he said, "We could always increase them, but I didn't want to do that at this time." Moon said he does not view the summit that collapsed in Hanoi as a failure, but part of a longer process. He said he agreed with Trump on the ultimate goal of total denuclearization by North Korea. "The important task that we face right now is to maintain the momentum of dialogue and also express the positive outlook regarding the third U.S.-North Korea summit to the international community, that this will be held in the near future," Moon said. A South Korean statement issued after the meeting, which included a working lunch, said Moon told Trump he will push to hold another summit soon with Kim. "The two presidents agreed that the top-down approach will continue to be indispensable in the peace process on the Korean peninsula. In this regard, President Trump stressed that the door was always open for dialogue with Chairman Kim," the statement said. A South Korean official said nothing has been decided about the timing and location of a next inter-Korean summit. Moon told Trump he will contact the North in earnest to talk about holding an inter-Korean summit soon, the official said. Trump asked Moon to brief him as early as possible on North Koreas latest thinking. Ahead of his trip, aides to Moon stressed the need to revive U.S.-North Korea talks. Moon has put his political reputation on the line in encouraging the negotiations. He has stressed the need to offer North Korea concessions, but Washington appears to have hardened its position against a phased approach sought by Pyongyang in which gradual steps would be rewarded with relief from punishing sanctions. Trump said he was open to a step-by-step approach but would need to see details. "There are various smaller deals that maybe could happen. Things could happen. You could work out, step by step, pieces. But at this moment, were talking about the big deal. The big deal is we have to get rid of the nuclear weapons," he said. On Thursday, North Korean state media said Kim had told a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Wednesday that he would push forward with efforts to make the economy more self sufficient "so as to deal a telling blow to the hostile forces who go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring (North Korea) to its knees." Last month, a senior North Korean official warned that Kim might rethink a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests in place since 2017 unless Washington makes concessions such as easing sanctions. On Wednesday, North Korea's state media said Kim had chaired a politburo meeting on Tuesday to discuss ways to make progress under the "prevailing tense situation." NECESSARY DETERRENT Kim and Moon met three times last year and Kim promised to visit South Korea in return for the South Korean leader's visit to Pyongyang in September. Analysts said a fourth Kim-Moon meeting could encourage another meeting between Kim and Trump. Moons top nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon said on Friday that sanctions were necessary to deter North Korea from making bad decisions but could not solve all unresolved problems. (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington and Joyce Lee, Josh Smith, and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Neil Fullick, James Dalgleish and David Gregorio) By Roberta Rampton and Soyoung Kim WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would leave sanctions in place on North Korea as he and South Korean President Moon Jae-in discussed ways to revive nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea. Trump, in Oval Office talks with Moon, left open the possibility of a third summit with Kim Jong Un but would not comment on whether he had communicated recently with the North Korean leader. The two men occasionally exchange letters. North Korea, which has suspended nuclear tests and missile launches, has been pressing for sanctions relief but has not taken meaningful steps toward denuclearization. Little progress has been made between the United States and North Korea since a failed summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi in February. Trump, asked by reporters whether he was prepared to ease some sanctions on North Korea, said he and Moon were discussing "certain humanitarian things" and the possibility of South Korea helping the North with food. He did not rule out participating in a three-way summit with both Kim and Moon. Of sanctions, he said, "We could always increase them, but I didn't want to do that at this time." Moon said he does not view the Hanoi, Vietnam summit, held in February, as a failure, but part of a longer process with the North. Moon said he agrees with Trump on the ultimate goal of total denuclearization by North Korea. "The important task that we face right now is to maintain the momentum of dialogue and also express the positive outlook regarding the third U.S.-North Korea summit to the international community, that this will be held in the near future," Moon said. A South Korean statement issued after the meeting, which included a working lunch, said Moon told Trump he will push to hold another summit soon with Kim. "The two presidents agreed that the top-down approach will continue to be indispensable in the peace process on the Korean peninsula. In this regard, President Trump stressed that the door was always open for dialogue with Chairman Kim," the statement said. Ahead of his trip, aides to Moon stressed the need to revive U.S.-North Korea talks as soon as possible after a second summit between Trump and Kim collapsed in Hanoi on Feb. 28. Moon has put his political reputation on the line in encouraging negotiations between the United States and North Korea aimed at persuading Kim to give up a nuclear weapons program that now threatens the United States. He has stressed the need to offer North Korea concessions to encourage negotiations, but Washington appears to have hardened its position against a phased approach sought by Pyongyang in which gradual steps would be rewarded with relief from punishing sanctions. Trump said he was open to a step-by-step approach but would need to see the details. "There are various smaller deals that maybe could happen. Things could happen. You could work out, step by step, pieces. But at this moment, were talking about the big deal. The big deal is we have to get rid of the nuclear weapons," he said. The Hanoi meeting collapsed amid conflicting demands by North Korea for sanctions relief and U.S. insistence on its complete denuclearization. On Thursday, North Korean state media said Kim had told a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Wednesday that he would push forward with efforts to make the economy more self sufficient "so as to deal a telling blow to the hostile forces who go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring (North Korea) to its knees." Last month, a senior North Korean official warned that Kim might rethink a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests in place since 2017 unless Washington makes concessions such as easing economic sanctions. North Korea's state media said on Wednesday that Kim had chaired a politburo meeting on Tuesday to discuss ways to make progress under the "prevailing tense situation." NECESSARY DETERRENT Kim and Moon met three times last year and Kim promised to visit South Korea in return for the South Korean leader's visit to Pyongyang in September. Analysts say a fourth Kim-Moon meeting could help toward another meeting between Kim and Trump. Moons top nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon said on Friday that sanctions were necessary to deter North Korea from making bad decisions but could not solve all unresolved problems. At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed that "core" U.N. sanctions would have to remain until North Korea's complete denuclearization, but reiterated past statements that some easing might be possible if it took significant steps. (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington and Joyce Lee, Josh Smith, and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Neil Fullick and James Dalgleish) By Khalid Abdelaziz KHARTOUM (Reuters) - President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan in autocratic style for 30 years, was on Thursday overthrown and arrested in a coup by the armed forces. In an address on state television, Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf, announced a two-year period of military rule to be followed by presidential elections. He said Bashir, 75, was being held in a "safe place" and a military council would now run the country. He did not say who would head it. Seated on a gold-upholstered armchair, Auf announced a state of emergency, a nationwide ceasefire and the suspension of the constitution. Sudan's airspace would be closed for 24 hours and border crossings shut until further notice. The main organizer of protests against Bashir, the Sudanese Professionals Association, rejected the minister's plans. It called on protesters to maintain a sit-in outside the defense ministry that started on Saturday, a source with the group said. Sudanese sources told Reuters that Bashir was at the presidential residence under "heavy guard". A son of Sadiq al-Mahdi, the head of the country's main opposition Umma Party, told al-Hadath TV that Bashir was being held with "a number of leaders of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group". Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and is facing an arrest warrant over allegations of genocide in Sudans Darfur region during an insurgency that began in 2003 and led to death of an estimated 300,000 people. Despite the arrest warrant Bashir defied the court by visiting several ICC member states. Diplomatic rows broke out when he went to South Africa in 2015 and Jordan in 2017 and both failed to arrest him. The downfall of Bashir follows the toppling this month of Algerian strongman Abdelaziz Bouteflika, also following mass protests after three decades in power. MILITARY RULE AGAIN? Names of Bashir's possible successors that have been circulating include the defense minister, an ex-military intelligence chief, also an Islamist, and former army chief of staff Emad al-Din Adawi. Adawi is said to be favored by regional neighbors at odds with Bashir over his Islamist leanings. Thousands of people flocked to an anti-government protest outside the defense ministry on Thursday, while huge crowds took to the streets in central Khartoum, dancing and shouting anti-Bashir slogans. Protesters chanted: "It has fallen, we won." Demonstrators called for a civilian government and said they would not accept an administration led by military and security figures, or by Bashir's aides. Omar Saleh Sennar, a senior member of the Sudanese Professionals' Association, said it expected to negotiate with the military over a transfer of power. "We will only accept a transitional civilian government," Sennar told Reuters. Kamal Omar, 38, another demonstrator, said: "We will continue our sit-in until we prevail." Some demonstrators, who have rallied against Bashir since Dec. 19, said they feared the delay would allow him to go into exile. Troops deployed around the defense ministry and on major roads and bridges in the capital. Soldiers stormed the headquarters of Bashir's Islamic Movement, the main component of the ruling National Congress Party. Protesters also attacked the offices of Sudan's intelligence and security service in the eastern cities of Port Sudan and Kassala on Thursday, witnesses said. Auf announced the release of all political prisoners. FATE UNCLEAR Bashir, a former paratrooper who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1989, has been a divisive figure who has managed his way through one internal crisis after another while withstanding attempts by the West to weaken him. Sudan has suffered prolonged periods of isolation since 1993, when the United States added Bashirs government to its list of terrorism sponsors for harboring Islamist militants. Washington followed up with sanctions four years later. The latest crisis has escalated since the weekend, when thousands of demonstrators began camping out outside the defense ministry compound, where Bashir's residence is located. Clashes erupted on Tuesday between soldiers trying to protect the protesters and intelligence and security personnel trying to disperse them. At least 11 people died, including six members of the armed forces, the information minister said, citing a police report. Since December, Sudan has been rocked by persistent protests sparked by the government's attempt to raise the price of bread, and an economic crisis that has led to fuel and cash shortages (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz and Mohamed El Sherif; Additional reporting by Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Samia Nakhoul and Giles Elgood) Khartoum (AFP) - Sudan's second new military leader in as many days vowed Saturday to "uproot" deposed president Omar al-Bashir's regime and release protesters, in a bid to placate demonstrators demanding civilian rule. "I announce the restructuring of state institutions according to the law and pledge to fight corruption and uproot the regime and its symbols," General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said, a day after he was sworn in to head Sudan's new ruling military council. He also ordered the release of all prisoners jailed by special emergency courts and the immediate lifting of a night-time curfew imposed by the council earlier this week. Career soldier Burhan took the helm of Sudan's transitional military council on Friday when his predecessor General Awad Ibn Ouf -- a close aide of ousted veteran president Bashir -- quit after little more than 24 hours in power. Burhan also pledged Saturday that individuals implicated in killing protesters would face justice. His initial announcements indicated he wanted to show the tens of thousands of protesters on the streets that he is not part of the regime's old guard and was genuinely committed to reform. He also accepted the resignation of the head of the feared National Intelligence and Security Service, Salah Abdallah Mohammed Salih -- widely known as Salih Ghosh -- the military council announced. Salih Ghosh had overseen a sweeping crackdown against protesters in four months of mass demonstrations that led to the army's toppling of Bashir on Thursday. - Demand for civilian rule - Dozens of protesters were killed and thousands of activists, opposition leaders and journalists arrested. The police said Friday that 16 people had been killed in live fire in Khartoum alone over the previous two days as NISS agents led a last stand for Bashir before the army intervened. But in a statement Saturday evening, Burhan said the deputy chief of the NISS was a member of the newly formed 10-member council which also includes the police chief and military figures. Story continues Burhan named as the council's deputy Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, who is also known as Himeidti, field commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) counter-insurgency unit, which rights groups have accused of abuses in war-torn Darfur. A photograph published by state news agency SUNA had shown Burhan talking with protesters outside army headquarters on Friday, before his elevation to the top job. Khartoum erupted with joy when Ibn Ouf tendered his resignation on Friday night barely 24 hours after taking the oath of office. But protest organisers urged demonstrators to keep up their week-old vigil outside army headquarters. Ibn Ouf had served as Bashir's defence minister right up to the president's downfall, ending three decades of iron-fisted rule. A former military intelligence chief, Ibn Ouf remains under US sanctions for his role in the regime's brutal response to a 2003 ethnic minority rebellion in Darfur region. Bashir himself came to power in a 1989 Islamist military coup, toppling an elected government led by Sadiq al-Mahdi. Burhan comes with less baggage from Bashir's deeply unpopular rule than Ibn Ouf. The grass-roots Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) composed of doctors, teachers and engineers, has spearheaded the nationwide protests. While welcoming Ibn Ouf's departure, it demanded that Burhan swiftly "transfer the powers of the military council to a transitional civilian government" and said it would continue to stage sit-ins to that end. - 'Violating the constitution' - Bashir remained in custody and his National Congress Party on Saturday urged the military council to release arrested members. "We consider (the) taking of power by the military council as violating the constitution's legitimacy," the NCP said in a statement. "The NCP rejects the detention of its leaders, among them its acting president" Ahmed Harun, it added, calling for their immediate release. Outside the Middle East, the formation of a military government to replace Bashir has met with widespread criticism. The African Union said Bashir's overthrow by the military was "not the appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people". The Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) called for dialogue and a peaceful transition of power, in a joint statement from their summit in Ndjamena, Chad. The European Union urged the army to carry out a "swift" handover to civilian rule, and former colonial ruler Britain said that the two-year transition announced by the military "is not the answer." "We need to see a swift move to an inclusive, representative, civilian leadership," said Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. But Saudi Arabia backed the transitional military council and promised an aid package including, wheat, medicine and "petroleum products", the Saudi Press Agency reported Saturday. Members of the military council have sought to reassure foreign diplomats about its intentions. "This is not a military coup, but taking the side of the people," the council's political chief Lieutenant General Omar Zain al-Abdin told Arab and African diplomats at a meeting broadcast on state television on Friday. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has longstanding arrest warrants against Bashir for suspected genocide and war crimes during the regime's brutal campaign of repression in Darfur. But the military council has said it would never extradite him or any other Sudanese citizen. Sudans national intelligence and security service said on April 11 that all political prisoners in the country would be released. Footage shared by the opposition Sudanese Congress Party shows protesters gathered outside a security building in Port Sudan, and celebrating the announced release. Thousands of Sudanese took to the streets on April 11 as reports circulated that President Omar al-Bashir had stepped down after months of protest in the country. Credit: Sudanese Congress Party via Storyful WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump will travel to Minnesota on Monday, the April 15 tax filing deadline. Trump is hoping to win Minnesota in the next election and has been citing tax cuts and his work on trade deals as positives that will help Republicans win in 2020. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the trip to reporters traveling with the president Wednesday in Texas. The Federal Aviation Administration has sent an advisory to pilots saying Trump would travel to the Minneapolis area. Trump lost Minnesota to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 1.5 percentage points. Minnesota has not voted for a Republican for president since Richard Nixon in 1972. By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday suspended discussions with Sudan on normalizing relations between the two countries after the military ousted President Omar al-Bashir and said it would run the country for two years. The State Department, while declining to declare the takeover a coup, said it supported a peaceful and democratic Sudan and believed the Sudanese people should be allowed a peaceful transition sooner than only in two years. "The Sudanese people should determine who leads them in their future," spokesman Robert Palladino said at a news briefing. "The Sudanese people have been clear that they have been demanding a civilian-led transition. They should be allowed to do so sooner than two years from now." Military leaders in Sudan said presidential elections would take place after a two-year period of military rule following the ouster of Bashir. The so-called "Phase II" talks between the United States and Sudan were initiated after the Obama administration moved to lift a 20-year-old trade embargo against Khartoum in recognition of the country's help in fighting Islamic State and progress in improving its human rights record. The United States first imposed sanctions on Sudan in 1997, including a trade embargo and blocking the governments assets, for human rights violations and terrorism concerns. It laid on more sanctions in 2006 for what it said was complicity in the violence in Darfur. Asked whether the United States supported Bashir being put on trial before the International Criminal Court for Darfur atrocities, Palladino said: "We believe that the victims of Darfur deserve justice, that accountability is essential for achieving lasting piece in Darfur." He declined to say whether the United States supported that justice being meted out by the ICC, which sits in The Hague. The Trump administration has said it will withdraw or deny visas of any ICC judges or prosecutors if the court investigated possible war crimes against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Doina Chiacu; Editing by David Alexander and Dan Grebler) LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday and said it showed that no one was above the law. "I am sure that the whole House will welcome the news this morning that the Metropolitan Police have arrested Julian Assange for breach of bail, after nearly seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy," she told parliament. "This goes to show that in the United Kingdom, no one is above the law." (Reporting by William James and Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison) Tripoli (AFP) - Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government and a rival commander battled for control of the capital Thursday after UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the country faced a "very dangerous situation". Thousands of people have fled heavy fighting on the outskirts of Tripoli that has left dozens dead and prompted mounting global alarm. Guterres appealed Wednesday for a halt to hostilities to prevent the situation spiralling out of control. "It's still time to stop," he told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council in a closed session in New York. "It's still time for a ceasefire to take place, for a cessation of hostilities to take place, and to avoid the worst, which would be a dramatic, bloody battle for Tripoli." Nearly a week of fighting on the city's doorstep has already killed 56 people and wounded 266, the World Health Organization said. "Thousands of people have fled their homes, while others are trapped in conflict areas. Hospitals inside and outside (Tripoli) are receiving daily casualties," it said. The UN chief was in Libya when forces loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar last week launched an offensive to capture the capital, which is controlled by a UN-backed government and an array of militias. Haftar backs a rival administration based in eastern Libya that refuses to recognise the authority of the Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez al-Sarraj. "Our forces continue to advance on all fronts and are converging on the centre of the capital," Ahmad al-Mesmari, spokesman of Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), said Thursday at a press conference. He said the LNA had issued arrest warrants against Sarraj and other GNA officials for "treason", "support for terror groups" and "conspiracy with foreign countries". The Security Council met for more than two hours behind closed doors to consider how to address the fighting, which has derailed efforts to end the instability that has beset Libya since its 2011 uprising. Story continues The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said the situation in Libya was "increasingly worrying". She called for the "full implementation of the humanitarian truce" and the "return to the political negotiations and the political track". The United Nations postponed a national conference that was to open on Sunday to draw up a roadmap to elections, meant to turn the page on years of turmoil since the NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. - Teen fighters held - Heavy clashes shook Ain Zara, a town dotted with farms on the southeastern outskirts of Tripoli where pro-GNA fighters managed to reverse an advance by Haftar's forces. On the town's main street, lined with shops and houses, a sand barrier erected by pro-GNA forces separated the two camps. "Today, the criminals of Haftar's group have advanced, but we destroyed a tank and two armoured vehicles," said a pro-GNA fighter who gave his name as Youssef. Behind him, artillery fire stirred up a cloud of sand as the sound of machine guns and anti-aircraft guns rang out. Suddenly a shell sliced through the air and hit a nearby house. "You see, he (Haftar) wants to destroy our houses and all of Tripoli," one of the fighters shouted. The GNA took journalists to a prison in the area, where director Ayad Enjem said "75 combatants" of Haftar's LNA fighters had been detained since Friday. "Several are younger than 16 years old" said Enjem, as representatives from a UN agency interviewed the prisoners. One detainee told AFP he was 16 and had been recruited recently in Sabratha, to the west of Tripoli. More than 100 others are being held in a prison in the coastal town of Zawiya, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the capital, according to its head Abdelbasset Abu Ajeila. - 'Cat and mouse' - Haftar's forces, which control swathes of the country's east, said on Wednesday they had seized a barracks in the Aziziya area around 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Tripoli after "ferocious clashes". They said several fighters loyal to the UN-backed government had been detained and their weapons seized. "For the moment, it's still a game of cat and mouse," a commander from a pro-GNA group said Wednesday. "We're still organising ourselves. The war hasn't truly started," he told AFP in Ain Zara. Haftar's forces appear to be advancing on two fronts, from the south and southeast of Tripoli, while coastal roads to the east and west of the city are defended by fighters loyal to the GNA. The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Russia are key allies of Haftar, a former Kadhafi military chief who has emerged as a major player in Libya's political struggle. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday the alliance was "deeply concerned by the situation in Libya." "The current military operation and advance on Tripoli are increasing the suffering of the Libyan people and putting civilian lives at risk," he said. Although casualties remain limited so far, the International Crisis Group warned further escalation "could precipitate a humanitarian disaster". "If unleashed, a full-fledged offensive could become a proxy war between regional powers and cause innumerable casualties as well as immense devastation," the think tank said. TOKYO (AP) Prosecutors questioned the wife of Nissan's former Chairman Carlos Ghosn in a Tokyo court Thursday, after her husband was taken into custody on financial misconduct allegations. A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Carole Ghosn was not a suspect and would be questioned voluntarily with her husband's legal team present. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The sessions were not public. Ghosn's lawyer Junichiro Hironaka said afterward he was confident that Thursday's proceedings would support his client's defense, Kyodo News agency reported. Carlos Ghosn was arrested in November and charged with falsifying financial documents and breach of trust while leading the Japanese automaker. The charges allege he under-reported his retirement income and had Nissan shoulder dubious payments and investment losses. He has maintained he is innocent. He was released on bail last month but rearrested last week. Prosecutors say the allegations that were the basis of his recent arrest are distinct from the others, while giving no details. The detention was approved through Sunday but can be extended. Earlier this year, Carole Ghosn wrote to Human Rights Watch, criticizing Japan's criminal justice system as unfair and harsh. ___ Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yurikageyama/?hl=en By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Yahoo has struck a revised $117.5 million settlement with millions of people whose email addresses and other personal information were stolen in the largest data breach in history. The proposed class-action settlement made public on Tuesday was designed to address criticisms of U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. She rejected an earlier version of the accord on Jan. 28, and her approval is still required. Koh said the original settlement was not "fundamentally fair, adequate and reasonable" because it had no overall dollar value and did not say how much victims might expect to recover. She also said the legal fees appeared to be too high. Yahoo, now part of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc, had been accused of being slow to disclose three data breaches affecting about 3 billion accounts from 2013 to 2016. The new settlement includes at least $55 million for victims' out-of-pocket expenses and other costs, $24 million for two years of credit monitoring, up to $30 million for legal fees, and up to $8.5 million for other expenses. It covers as many as 194 million people in the United States and Israel with roughly 896 million accounts. John Yanchunis, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in a court filing called the $117.5 million the "biggest common fund ever obtained in a data breach case." He did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment. Separately, Verizon agreed to spend $306 million between 2019 and 2022 on information security, five times what Yahoo spent from 2013 to 2016. It also pledged to quadruple Yahoo's staffing in that area. "The settlement demonstrates our strong commitment to security," Verizon said in a statement. Yahoo agreed in July 2016 to sell its internet business to Verizon for $4.83 billion. Only later did it reveal the scope of the breaches, prompting a price cut to $4.48 billion. Verizon wrote off much of Yahoo's value in December. Story continues U.S. prosecutors charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers in connection with one of the breaches in 2017. One hacker later pleaded guilty. The case is In re: Yahoo Inc Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 16-md-02752. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and David Gregorio) 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. Israeli security forces arrested overnight Wednesday 19 Palestinians on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activity in the West Bank. The suspects were taken for further questioning. The re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister was a foregone conclusion shared by all at a seminar dedicated to the Israeli elections, held last week, in Jordan's leading university in Amman. Israeli society, participants agreed, is fractured but "only Netanyahu is king." Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter My friends in the Arab world were intrigued by the elections and the democratic process, but the Blue and White Party was seen by them as a nuisance rather than a political option. Its leader, former military chief and challenger Benny Gantz barely registered. Benjamin Netanyahu and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the UN General Assembly in September 2018 (Photo: GPO) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who describes his relations with Netanyahu as very good, was at the White House while Israelis went to the polls. Democrats and human rights organizations condemn Sisi for his hard-handed treatment of regime opponents, but Donald Trump says he is a "great guy" who was there to hear about Egypt's role in the so-called "deal of the century" for Middle East peace. Trump assigned his Egyptian counterpart the role of uniting moderate Arab states in advance of the roll-out of his peace plan. On the Iranian issue, however, the two leaders did not agree. Egypt cannot afford to wage war on Iran but the outcome of the Israeli elections did not seem to trouble Sisi one bit. In Lebanon, Netanyahu's win was described as the victory of the extreme right over the soft-right, while both ignore the Palestinian conflict all together. Benjamin Netanyahu wins the 2019 elections (Photo: MCT) Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, however, followed the Israeli elections with trepidation. They maintain relations with Israel and its leader, but choose to keep them low key. Most telling, unlike earlier elections, Arab leaders did not try to meddle in the Israeli Arab vote. They view the local Arab society as having lost interest in their leadership, which they perceive as disconnected from issues relevant to their own sector. Cairo - The Sudanese armed forces announced they will deliver an "important statement" on Thursday, state TV reported. This after nearly four months of anti-government protests demanding the ouster of longtime President Omar al-Bashir. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The TV announcement raised expectations the statement could be a sign that al-Bashir is relinquishing power or is being removed by the military after 30 years of rule. Sudan: Military coup (Photo: Reuters) Pan-Arab TV networks carried unconfirmed reports that al-Bashir had stepped down and that top ruling party officials were being arrested. The whereabouts of the autocratic leader, who is a pariah in many countries and is also wanted by the international war crimes tribunal for atrocities in Darfur, were not immediately known. Organizers of the protests urged masses to converge and join an ongoing sit-in that has been underway in the capital, Khartoum, since the weekend. They issued a statement vowing to remain in the streets until the "regime steps down completely and power is handed to a civilian transitional government." Military coup in Sudan (Photo: Reuters) Thousands of protesters, including women carrying their children, were seen making their way on Thursday toward the military headquarters, clapping and ululating, many flashing "V'' for victory. There were also unconfirmed reports that the airport in the Sudanese capital had been closed. Ahead of the statement, Sudanese radio played military marches and patriotic music as the TV said there will be an "important statement from the armed forces after a while, wait for it." The development followed deadly clashes between Sudanese security forces and protesters holding a large anti-government sit-in outside the military's headquarters Khartoum, which also include a presidential residence. There were several attempts to break up the sit-in, leaving 22 dead since Saturday. All that raised the possibility that what was playing out in Khartoum on Thursday was a military takeover and removal of al-Bashir. Ecuador President Lenin Moreno said Thursday that his country received a UK guarantee that Julian Assange would not be extradited to a country where he would face the death penalty. Ecuador withdrew diplomatic asylum of the Wikileaks founder for repeated violations of international conventions, said Moreno. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after they were invited into the Ecuadorean embassy where he has been holed up since 2012. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter "Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador," police said. Police said they arrested Assange after being "invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean government's withdrawal of asylum." Assange being led out by police from the embassy Assange took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation. That probe was later dropped, but Assange fears he could be extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks. Assange was taken into custody at a central London police station and he will be brought before Westminster Magistrates' Court, police said. British police arrives at Ecuadorean embassy (Photo: EPA) Assange's relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno's personal life. Moreno had previously said Assange has violated the terms of his asylum. Moreno said that he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Photo: EPA) "The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules," Moreno said. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Moreno for breaking the impasse, saying on Twitter that Assange "is no hero and no one is above the law." WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated Assange's political asylum in violation of international law. To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. But to others, he is a dangerous rebel who has undermined the security of the United States. Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi signed on Thursday several MoUs with Alassane Ouattara, the president of the Ivory Coast, on cooperation in health, culture and information technology. El-Sisi arrived in the Ivory Coast early on Thursday in the first ever visit by an Egyptian president to the West African country. This is the second leg of a three-nation African tour by the Egyptian president as part of a broader drive to boost political and economic ties with countries in the continent. The first stop was in Guinea earlier this week and the last stop will be Senegal. The Ivorian president welcomed the El-Sisi's unprecedented visit to Abidjan, and expressed appreciation for the Egyptian president's ongoing African tour, which reflects Egypt's weight and role on the popular and official levels and its vital role in Africa. President Ouattara also affirmed the strong relations binding Egypt and the Ivory Coast and expressed his country's aspiration to strengthen relations with Egypt, particularly in the field of information technology, as well as on the economic level. Ouattara said he hopes the Egyptian presidents visit will open new horizons of cooperation between Egypt and the Ivory Coast, especially during Egypts current chairmanship of the African Union. President El-Sisi expressed his readiness to support the Ivory Coast in infrastructure and information technology, especially given Egypts extensive expertise in these fields. "The talks between presidents El-Sisi and Ouattara reflected strong agreement between the two countries on issues of mutual interest, especially on the situation in Libya," a statement by Egypts presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady said. President Ouattara expressed appreciation for Egypts efforts to promote joint African action within the framework of its current chairmanship of the African Union and as part of its mission to promote the AU's 2063 agenda for sustainable development in Africa. The two presidents agreed at the end of the talks to activate the role of the joint committee between the two countries at the level of foreign ministers to follow up on cooperation in various fields. Search Keywords: Short link: Sudanese community in Israel celebrated on the streets of Tel Aviv as the news about the ouster of Sudans longtime autocratic president broke early Thursday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter Earlier on Thursday, tens of thousands of Sudanese marched toward the center of the capital Khartoum, cheering, singing and dancing in celebration as two senior officials said the military had forced President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years in power. Sudanese community in Tel Aviv (: ) X The streets of Tel Avivs southern neighborhood, Neve Shaanan - known for having a large African migrants and asylum seekers population - filled up with Sudan nationals (currently estimated to be around 7,000) all of whom struggled to contain their excitement. Moussa, 40, who came to Israel a decade ago on his own, leaving his parents and family behind, said the Sudanese community all over the world has been extremely active over the recent months on social media, trying to make the dream of a revolution in the country possible. Sudanese community in Tel Aviv "We made phone calls and posted updates on social media. I hope to go back and see my mother soon," Moussa said. "We are going to wait a little bit in order to make sure that the tyrannical regime has fallen. "We are very happy today Sudan is reborn. We have suffered so much because of the dictator Bashir, and today after 30 years the people said 'enough is enough. We thank all those who made the revolution possible. The community in Israel supports our friends in Sudan and those in refugee camps in Darfur," the 40-year-old added. Sudanese national in Tel Aviv Another Sudanese national living in Tel Aviv, Majed Omar Nurian, also spoke of his excitement. "Today we feel that now we will be fine in Sudan, we will return to our families with our children and well be happy there, he said. "I'm very pleased that there's going to be a change," said another Sudanese man living in Tel Aviv. Bashir, Sudans great dictator, has destroyed the country and killed many people. Thank God hes been ousted. Its not clear what will happen, but it will certainly be better." Sudanese defense minister has announced the military has overthrown and arrested President Omar al-Bashir and has taken charge of the country for the next two years following nearly four months of protests against his rule. Sudan's military following announcement about a coup (Photo: EPA) Awad Mohammed Ibn Ouf appeared on state TV, in military fatigues, following an earlier announcement of an "important statement" coming from the army on Thursday. Ibn Ouf says after the two years, "free and fair elections" will take place. He says a state of emergency has been imposed for the next three months and that the military has also suspended the constitution, closed borders and the country's airspace. A transitional military council will lead the country for two years, Ouf also said the government and the presidency have been dissolved, and imposed a night curfew. The Central Elections Committee has released the latest results for the April 9 Knesset elections. With the completion of the vote count, including those of IDF servicemembers, Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party gained a 36th Knesset seat while his main rival, the Blue and White Party, remains at 35 of the Israeli parliament's 120 seats. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter The figures, released by the committee, after a delay of several hours caused by technical issues, also showed that Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shakeds New Right party failed to pass the threshold of 3.25% of the vote. Justice Hanan Melcer (Photo: Gil Yohanan) The latest results indicate that a party required 139,744 votes in order to pass the threshold and the New Right lacked 1,461 votes. The Right-wing bloc now has a 65-55 advantage over the Left and the Arab parties. However, minor changes to the final tally may still be forthcoming. The other parties have the following number of Knesset seats: Shas, 8; Yahadut Hatorah lost one seat to the Likud and now has 7; Labor and Hadash-Ta'al, 6; the Union of Right-Wing Parties, 5; Yisrael Beytenu, 5; Meretz and Ra'am-Blad, 4 each. The Zehut Party failed to pass the threshold. PM Netanyahu, Sara, on election night Netanyahu is already in the midst of negotiations in order to form, what would be a narrow, coalition of 65 MKs, but any of his partners will have the ability to bring down the government. Another option is for the prime minister to seek a national unity government with the Blue and White Party, or with defectors from that party, in order to form a more stable coalition. The announcement of the results was scheduled for 8pm but was delayed, due to what the head of the Central Elections Committee said were technical issues. Justice Hanan Melcer, said in a statement to the press that an announcement would be made before midnight. Bennett; Shaked (Photo: Shaul Golan, Yariv Katz) He said that there had been a problem with transmitting the final results to the commitee's website, but that the results would also be online at midnight. Earlier, CEC spokesman Giora Pordes said that several polling stations had been subjected to further investigation because their results were "out of balance" and that the data and the reporting protocols had not corresponded. "We are talking about 30-40 polling stations that are being investigated following complaints, because of the close race between some of the parties, every vote is important and examined with sensitivity," Pordes said. Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg (Photo: Yair Sagi) Representatives of several parties addressed the committee on Thursday, alleging fraud in the vote count, including Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg, whose left-wing, secular party won at least four seats, and Rabbi Haim Amsalem of the far-right Zehut Party, which failed to pass the electoral threshold of 3.25 percent for entry in to the Knesset. Zandberg told the committee that her party's votes had been interfered with by members of an ultra-Orthodox party. "They are trying to steal a seat from us. We have reports of political interference in counting votes. United Torah Judaism is trying to exert pressure so that Meretz's fifth seat goes to them. We have been informed of disappearing ballot boxes and discrepancies between the protocols and what is posted on the elections website," she said. "Even in the elections for the Tel Aviv municipality, this happened to us with United Torah Judaism and serious irregularities. This situation cannot be repeated, and the purity of the elections must be preserved." UTJ rejected the allegations, saying that her claims were groundless. The Zehut Party claims that confirmed votes counted at the polls are not showing up on the Central Committee's website and suspect foul play. Also earlier, outgoing Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked was at the committee offices where she expressed hope that once ballots cast by IDF servicemembers were counted, her New Right Party would pass the electoral threshold, but that seems to not be the case. The rabbinical committee that oversees "Kosher" phones (phones that have limited, filtered internet access and no texting), ruled that hotlines for victims of sexual abuse be banned from the "kosher" network and some ultra-Orthodox Jews are suing. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter According to attorney Yuval Gideon, who is submitting the petition on behalf of the plaintiffs, a man or a woman in need of advice or counseling following a sexual assault have no recourse. "There are variances among the different network operators and some allow users to dial (the hotlines) while others do not. The issue of blocked numbers is completely arbitrary and unregulated," he said. kosher phones Gideon says that the rabbinical oversight committee makes all decisions regarding which numbers to block with no possibility to appeal. "According to communications law, it is illegal for network operators to arbitrarily block numbers. In addition, these phones are used by consumers who have no other choice. Many Haredi institutions do not accept students if they have a non-"kosher" cell phone," he added. According to Gideon, when he sought an explanation for the blanket ban, he was rebuffed and the rabbis refused to respond to his queries. The communications committee also did not respond. Do the cellphone companies have the authority to block access to numbers that can be lifesaving? "We believe that they cannot. But the phone companies are motivated by profit. Imagine that the phone company is threatened that if they do not heed the dictates of the rabbis they will lose a lot of business," Gideon replies. "There are new phone companies that lack an agreement with the rabbinical committee and all of their numbers are blocked. One cannot call them because they do not provide a "kosher" option. Gideon concluded: "We hope that the struggle isnt over. There has been a significant increase in inquiries to the assistance hotlines from the Haredi sector, both by men and women. There still remains a gap between the Haredi sector and the general population. Imagine the poor boy who draws the courage to reach out for help and is told that the number is blocked." Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - On Friday, at approximately 8:15 pm, a pull station fire alarm was received from the International Paper Company, 2641 East 24th Street. Yuma Fire Department personnel arrived to find heavy smoke coming from a large warehouse building at that location. It was determined that machinery inside the building was on fire, and the fire suppression sprinkler system was keeping the fire contained. Firefighters entered the building, located the area that was burning, and extinguished the fire. The fire was originally discovered by employees working at the facility who initially attempted to extinguish the fire themselves. When their efforts were not successful, a manual pull station alarm was activated. Shortly after that, the heat from the fire began to activate the sprinkler heads which contained the fire to the machinery where the fire had started. Fire damage was limited to the area of the machinery, and the ceiling area above. The open spaces of the building sustained additional smoke damage. No injuries to employees or YFD personnel were reported. Fire sprinkler systems can keep fires from spreading and can also extinguish them. Fire spreads quickly and can double in size every minute. Even small fires can cause significant damage to property and endanger those nearby. Contrary to many Hollywood portrayals, only sprinkler heads directly exposed to the heat activate, not those in the rest of the room, building, or complex. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. When scientists at the Department of Energys SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory took on the task of building the worlds very first X-ray laser capable of imaging matter at the atomic scale, they knew they were in for an uphill battle. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) was designed to generate X-ray pulses a billion times brighter than anything that had come before. It would be the first machine to produce high energy (or hard) X-ray laser pulses that would last for just femtoseconds, millionths of a billionth of a second. If successful, LCLS would enable new science at ultrasmall, ultrafast scales. It would be a new tool, a microscope that could spy on the intricate movements of atoms and molecules, capturing their motion in freeze-frame movies. It would deepen our fundamental understanding of the building blocks of life and position scientists to make advancements in areas ranging from clean energy to next-generation computing and improved medicines. In order to work, LCLS would need a tremendous leap in cutting-edge technologies, requiring scientists, engineers and technicians from around the world to pool their expertise and clear uncountable hurdles. Many thought it was a leap too far, requiring a precision that was simply not practical. But the U.S. Department of Energy decided the scientific reward was great enough to take the risk, and invested almost half a billion dollars for the LCLS project. A team was formed that pulled together researchers from SLAC, Argonne, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Brookhaven national laboratories, along with the University of California, Los Angeles and many other institutions from around the world. In April 2009, after more than a decade of painstaking effort, the lab made history when a tiny bunch of electrons completed a nearly speed-of-light journey through the kilometer-long accelerator to produce the very first burst of X-rays from an exquisitely aligned series of magnets: the first light from LCLS. Since that moment, SLAC has been the birthplace of a host of scientific firsts. Here are 10 areas where LCLS has shined new light in the 10 years since it turned on. Sharing is caring! 44 shares Share 43 Tweet Pin 1 Four months ago my life was changed forever. While hiking on a very remote part of Stewart Island, I stumbled upon a scene of horror at sunset, several pods of 150 pilot whales beaching themselves in the shallow surf. Far from help, we did all that we could, but they ultimately all died. Their cries haunt my dreams and still wake me up at night. I have nightmares about their bodies left to the sands on that beach, all alone. How could I not help them? Why couldnt I save them? Us humans have done so much harm to our oceans but also have created so many impossible things and built so many incredible machines. Weve sent men to the moon and taken photos of a black hole for the first time. We have magical underwater internet cables all around the world. How could we not save some whales? How could I not even call for help? We should have been able to save them. It makes me SO FUCKING MAD that we only prioritize science for profit. Why dont we dedicate the billions of dollars that go into military funding like underwater naval mock battles or seismic blasting in our oceans instead of trying to figure out why whales keep beaching themselves and how we can prevent it? WE STILL DONT HAVE THE ANSWERS. ok, all caps, Im pissed. Calm down, Liz. But seriously, look at those four photos I just shared above. That was hell. Taking those photos was hell and killed part of my soul. The only reason I even took a few images of the stranding was because I knew deep down that this would become part of my story, and I would need them down the road. Part of me died that day on the beach with those whales, and caused a wound so deep Im only starting to recover from it. I never want to experience that fear, helplessness, anger and grief again. The ghosts of 150 beautiful pilot whales walk with me everyday: mothers, babies, brothers, sisters, fathers, all gone but not forgotten, at least to me. My experience with the whales was a catalyst for a massive breakdown for me, in which all my issues with control and being able to handle situations exploded, rendering me almost useless for months. I spiraled into a deep depression, pushing everyone away from me, wallowing and unable to get the most basic tasks done. I stopped sleeping again and became the poster child for a millennial burnout. My exhaustion consumed me. I realized I couldnt do it all, and I had to ask for help when I needed it, which I did. So what can I do now? What does that have to do with whales, Liz? Last weekend I took the first step to becoming stronger by becoming a marine mammal medic in Kaikoura with Project Jonah, a New Zealand charity thats been saving whales since 1974. Alongside the Department of Conservation (DOC), they are dedicated to protecting marine mammals here in New Zealand. Half of the worlds whales and dolphins species are found in New Zealand, and there is a high rate of strandings here, averaging over 300 per year. They need our help. New Zealand is a hotspot for whale strandings and has a handful of places where whales regularly strand, like on Stewart Island where I was and famously on Farewell Spit. After my experience with the whales on Stewart Island, it was Project Jonah, DOC, and even the New Zealand police (!!) who looked after me, calling me and checking in on me when I was feeling blue. The support I received over those tough few weeks as I began to come to terms with my experience. Once I began to feel better, I realized I had a difficult choice ahead of me: either ignore what I experienced with the whales and bury those horrible memories and move on with my life, or embrace the pain and use it as foundation to make a change in the world. I am not one of those airy-fairy people who believes in fate or whatever *eye rolls* but honestly, I really think it was fate that put me on that beach with those whales. What are the chances someone was even there, let alone ME?! Now I truly feel like its my duty now to share what I went through and do my part to make sure that no one is ever in my position again. So I booked a flight to Christchurch, rented a car, and drove up to Kaikoura for the weekend, where I was able to attend one of Project Jonahs marine mammal medic courses. Yes, its a thing. With so many strandings happening every year, Project Jonah and DOC rely on trained volunteers (marine mammal medics) to help with the rescues and re-floating of stranded whales. You spend the morning in the classroom learning about whales and dolphins and some of the reasons why they strand, along with the rescue techniques used at a stranding. In the afternoon, youll pull on a wetsuit and hit the beach for the practical part of the course, practicing what weve learned on life size inflatable whales and dolphins (filled with water to make them life-weight too) as well as using real rescue equipment on them. By the end of Project Jonah Marine Mammal Medic course youll be trained to: Assist in the rescue of stranded dolphins and whales Act as a role model to untrained rescuers After the course youll be issued with a marine mammal medic card and added to our national database for future stranding call-outs. Be sure to subscribe to Project Jonahs newsletter so you can sign up for the next course. I truly believe along with Project Jonah, that everyone person who lives in New Zealand should do this course and be better prepared for strandings. It was so hard to relive those memories but now I feel one step closer to not being helpless and ignorant with strandings and I hope I can begin to do my part in saving and protecting these amazing creatures. I realized that while I did a lot of things wrong when I stumbled across those whales on Stewart Island, like trying to grab them by their tails, I also realized I did the right thing by sending my partner at the time off running 20 kilometers to find DOC rangers. Im still coming to terms with the fact that there was nothing anyone could have done to save those whales I found, so many factors were not in their favor, mostly due to the sheer remoteness and access difficulty of where I found them, I feel a lot more secure in the knowledge I took away from this course that I can be of help in future strandings. Which leads me to my next point I need your help. While Ive always loved whales and marine mammals (I mean, whats not to love? They are pretty incredible!) I now feel like whales are part of my story and I want to spend more time with them, and hopefully not just at whale strandings as a volunteer. I want to spend time with them in the water, learning about them and studying them. Please if you know anyone who works with whales or dolphins or has experience in this area, scientists, biologists, rangers, or just fellow whale lovers, please let me know. Im really thinking about heading up to Tonga this winter to swim with the Humpback whales during their migration, but please let me know of other opportunities, places, books, movies, anything about whales where I can further my knowledge. And please connect me with fellow whale people! Thank you and nga mihi. Liz xx Report whale or dolphin strandings to the DOC emergency hotline 0800 DOC HOT or to Project Jonah 0800 4 WHALE Do you spend time at the ocean and love whales and dolphins too? Is this something youd be keen to learn more about? Share! I am cynical/practical/experienced enough to know that pre-election opinion polls can go quite wrong for at least three reasons. Voters may not truly reveal their minds and/or change their minds close to polling day. The sampling methodology may go wrong or converting vote shares based on sample surveys into seats can get tricky. Last but not the least, media organisations carrying out opinion poll results in league with pollster organisations can add a bit of spice to suit their own priorities. After discounting for all this, I do believe that in the general elections that are now underway, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reached a point where it will certainly not get a majority of its own like it did in 2014, and may also not be entirely home even with its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners. One TV news channel that is visibly, loudly and consistently supportive of the BJP sees the NDA tally at 279, just four ahead of the half-way mark. An average of all opinion polls this week gives the NDA 277 seats in the Lok Sabha. There are as many as 167 "marginal" seats where close contests will decide winners in the 543-member Lok Sabha. It is time to ask some what-if questions. My guess is that in a scenario where the NDA is short of a clear majority, three leaders from the south will become important: Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal from Odisha, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy from the YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh. (If the Tropic of Cancer is seen as the dividing line between northern and southern India, Odisha, which is to the southeast, certainly falls in the south. It is also definitely south of the Vindhya mountain range, the traditional threshold to separate the south from the north.) KCR, as the Telangana Chief Minister is called, is officially part of the 'Mahagatbandhan' (grand alliance) against Modi and will be needed by the BJP only if there is a significant late swing against it. With Telangana still in its honeymoon phase after he led a decades-old movement to carve the state out of the undivided Andhra Pradesh, he is perhaps the strongest ruling CM in India today, not counting Pawan Chamling of Sikkim. KCR's pro-farmer programmes are considered a role model for the rest of India. Patnaik has been maintaining a studied equidistance from the BJP and the Congress and has had a phenomenal run in his state, having won four terms in a row to be the Odisha Chief Minister since the year 2000. His development efforts are part of the national folklore. Jagan Reddy, only 46 years old, is yet to taste power, but is seen as the front-runner in an anti-incumbency mood against Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP). He announced last week he had no ill-will against the Congress, from which his party broke off, even as he maintains that he favours anyone who grants special status to Andhra under an arrangement made when Telangana was carved out. Jagan is perhaps the easiest for the BJP to woo since Naidu is already on the side of the anti-Modi alliance. KCR can be wooed in a desperate scenario. But Patnaik may be a harder nut to crack. It all depends on the exact break-up of the Lok Sabha that gets formed in the summer heat. Watch out in the coming days nice things to be said about these three gentlemen. They may be kingmakers, and they may even edge close to each other where the eventual verdict swings away from the current predictions. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.) By now even the most avid political observer is very confused about who is inside and outside the Grand Coalition, or Mahagathbandhan in the run up to Indian General Elections 2019. Every day throws up new surprises on Saturday (March 30), the Nishad Party in Uttar Pradesh (UP) left the Mahagathbandhan of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-Samajwadi Party (SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) just three days after joining. Last week saw President of Indian National Congress (INC) Mr Rahul Gandhi make snide remarks against West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamta Banerjee, who we thought was part of the Mahagathbandhan. Maybe she is? Maybe she isnt? Do we know? When will we know? It is clear that the opposition parties have formed an opportunistic alliance with an admixture of political parties that are often politically opposed to each other with conflicting ideologies. This is in sharp contrast to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP that has a cohesive identity and vision as an alliance to form the government at the Centre. As the Prime Minster Narendra Modi himself says, a party with poorna bahumat carries strength with it nationally and globally and this has been proven beyond doubt in the last five years of the NDA government under his decisive leadership. Only a coalition led by a strong national party can work at delivering results on the ground, be they in maximizing benefits to deprived communities, boosting Indias defence assets and leading the economy to over 7.5 per cent growth that in turn translates into development and employment. Sab ka Saath Sab ka Vikas is the passion that drives the BJP as they are not words alone to fuel an election campaign but an ethos the party lives by. But what is the theme of the Opposition alliance? What does the Mahagathbandhan stand for? All thats clear is that its Anti-Modi. But is that a good enough reason to ask for a billion voters to repose faith in these diverse parties who have previously been at each others throats in the political arena simply because they are anti-Modi? Is anti-Modi an ideology? What is the larger philosophy that drives this alliance? Its plain and simple its a greed for power and nothing else. After a decade of stagnation and no progress during the UPA regime, India got a strong government in 2014 under the dynamic leadership of PM Narendra Modi with a transparency in working and speedy delivery of long pending benefits such as electrification (a whopping 18,452 villages were without electricity in 2014, and today all Indias 5,97,464 Census villages have been electrified), provision of 6 crore Ujjwala gas connections to women, making the underprivileged have access to bank accounts the list is long. This speedy execution was possible only because of a strong majority party. Let us not forget that successful economies in the West largely achieved their successes under single party governments and not coalitions. After World War II, the first coalition government in the United Kingdom was only in 2010 where the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats aligned to form the government. In the United States of America, there is no possibility of a coalition system of governance as the country follows a two-party system. Unsteady coalitions are not only a drain to the national exchequer in terms of time taken to make key policy decisions but also affect its final outcome. This is something that India cannot afford. For a second lets pause to imagine a scenario the massacre of our CRPF bravehearts happens in Pulwama and a fractured coalition government is at the Centre led by somebody (we cannot even name anyone as in the Mahagathbandhan all party leaders want to be PM!). Would there have been a successful strike in Balakot on receiving intelligence information of the hundreds of terrorists waiting in the Pakistani camp to attack India? No - such a government would just stay mum just like UPA did after 26/11. And the terrorists would attack where they pleased, where we live and work. A bunch of leaders of provincial parties along with one so-called national party, the Congress, is certainly not what India needs. Strong leadership and governance is possible only with strong governments and a leader with unflinching dedication to the country. Look no further, we have that in Indias PM Narendra Modi. (The author Khemchand Sharma is a member of the BJP IT and Social Media Campaign Committee. The article is the personal view of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.) New Delhi: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has fixed April 24 as the 'record date' to determine shareholders eligible to apply for the equity shares in the upcoming Rs 25,000 crore rights issue. In a regulatory filing, Airtel said the committee (Special Committee of Directors for Fund Raising) at its meeting held on Wednesday "has fixed the record date for the purpose of determining the shareholders eligible to apply for the equity shares in the rights issue on Wednesday, April 24, 2019". Bharti Airtel is learnt to have already received market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi's) approval for the rights issue. The board of the company had approved the rights issue proposal in February. Airtel has announced rights issue to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through issuance of fully paid up shares at a price of Rs 220 per share, and an additional Rs 7,000 crore via foreign currency perpetual bond issue. The company had said the capital infusion will help it continue investments in future rollouts to build large network capacity and create content and technology partnerships to ensure the strong customer experience. Last month, Airtel received commitment from its single-largest shareholder Singtel, promoters, and GIC Singapore to participate in the Rs 32,000 crore capital raising programme. Singapore telecom major SingTel said it will infuse Rs 3,750 crore in Bharti Airtel by subscribing to the proposed Rs 25,000 crore rights issue of the company, while GIC Private Limited, on behalf of Singapore government and Monetary Authority of Singapore, has made a commitment of Rs 5,000 crore in the proposed programme. Indian telecom players, including Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd, have embarked on mega fund raising programmes to arm themselves with firepower to take on market competition intensified by Reliance Jio as well as pare debt. New Delhi: Leading telcos Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have paid the government over Rs 10,000 crore in spectrum dues slated for April 10, but debt-ridden Reliance Communications has so far not deposited its outstanding amount of Rs 492 crore, a source said. The payments are towards the latest installment in deferred spectrum liability for radiowaves bought in the past auctions. The source privy to the development told PTI that the country's largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea has made payment of over Rs 6,277.1 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) towards its spectrum dues. The company, which has put in motion a Rs 25,000-crore rights issue, had paid Rs 3,042.7 crore to the department in March as part of a previous installment. While Bharti Airtel has made payment of Rs 2,745.8 crore and Reliance Jio paid Rs 1,109.1 crore, the embattled Reliance Communications has not yet made payment of about Rs 492 crore as on the due date. Typically, telecom companies are given a grace period of 10 days after the due date by the DoT to make the stipulated payment. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio did not comment on mails sent to them. Reliance Communications too declined to comment on the issue, but an industry observer noted that RCom has repeatedly written to the DoT, seeking return of excess bank guarantee encashment. The next round of installments for the operators is scheduled for September-October. The government, in March last year, enhanced number of annual installments for spectrum payment from 10 to 16 years to provide relief to the debt-laden telecom sector. The industry argues that the sector has lost 42 per cent revenue from sales of telecom services on quarterly basis between April-June 2016 and July-September 2018. They have said the debt level on four mobile operators is at around Rs 5 lakh crore, and 60 per cent of the liability is from spectrum payment obligations. Vodafone Idea has earlier sought two-year moratorium on annual spectrum payment of over Rs 10,000 crore, citing high debt levels and stress on the balance sheet. In all, the amount to be paid by Vodafone Idea is estimated to be around Rs 11,900 crore this year, spread over multiple instalments through the year. The company - formed from the merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular - has embarked on a massive fund raising drive - Vodafone Idea's Rs 25,000 crore rights issue opened Wednesday, and the telecom operator is offering 2,000 crore shares at a price of Rs 12.50 a share. The rights issue will close on April 24, 2019. Bharti Airtel too has received market regulator Sebi's approval to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through rights issue. New Delhi: One of the most widely celebrated festivals of Navratri has begun in full swing. Devotees observe fast and pray to Maa Durga during nine-day long festivity which started this year on April 6 and lasts till the 14th of this month, with Ram Navami being celebrated on the latter date. During Navratri, a different form of Durga is worshipped. On the 6th day, Maa Katyayani is worshipped by the devotees. She is the second name of Goddess Parvati, Adi Parashakti or Amarakosha, as per the Sanskrit lexicon. She is also hailed as the fierce avatar of Maa Durga as per some beliefs. Maa Katyayani is associated with the red colour, something which is also linked to Goddess Durga. According to Skanda Purana, Devi Katyayani came into being from the spontaneous anger of the gods to kill the demonMahishasur. She mounted on a lion which Goddess Parvati offered to her and killed Mahishasur in her fierce avatar. That is why Durga is also known by the name Mahishasurmardini. This is celebrated widely across the globe as Durga Puja. It coincides with the Sharad Navratri which falls during September-October. The legend of Mahishasur and how the goddess killed him is the most popular one associated with the origin of Maa Katyayani, who put an end to evil and helped the gods from the clutches of this demon. Goddess Katyayani mounts on a lion and has three eyes and is four-armed. Maa Katyayani mantra for marriage issues: Katyayani Mahamaye Mahayoginyadheeshwari Nandgopsutam Devipatim Me Kuru Te Namah Katyayani Mantra: Om Devi Katyayanyai Namah Devi Katyayani Stuti: Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu Ma Katyayani Rupena Samsthita Namastasyai Namastasyai Namastasyai Namo Namah Benefits of chanting Maa Katyayani mantra: It is believed, if someone's marriage is getting delayed, Maa Katyayani's mantra chant removes all the hurdles, Manglik Dosha from the horoscope. If married, then this mantra can ensure a happy married life. Couples, who are in love and yet to get the consent of their parents for marriage can also chant the mantra for marrying the partner of their choice. Legends: As per popular beliefs, Devi Katyayani was born to Rishi Katyayan, who hailed from the Katya lineage linked to Vishwamitra originally. The sage Katyayan was an ardent Durga follower and performed austere penance to please the goddess as he wanted her to be born as his daughter. Later, Maa Durga, pleased by his tap and dedication reincarnated as Katyayanithe daughter of Katyayan. In other texts, such as the Kalika Purana, it is stated that because Rishi Katyayan first worshipped the goddess, she came to be known as Katyayani. There are several temples of Devi Katyayani in the country and Katyayani Vrat (fast) is also observed by the women, who wish to have a husband of their own choice. Earlier beliefs also link it to the legend which says Gopis would observe the fast, singing Lord Krishna's praises and pray to Maa Katyayani with devotion in order to seek Krishna as their partner. Khadga is her weapon and she holds a lotus in one of her hands while the other hand stays always stays in Abhayamudra or Varadamudra for blessings. Jai Mata Di! Imran Khan, already facing the heat in Pakistan due to the country's disastrous economic state, found himself in the middle of another controversy when he was targeted by rival politicians for his remarks on Indian election and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking to foreign journalists earlier this week, Imran had said that BJP's win in Lok Sabha 2019 election would give a better chance for Indo-Pak peace process. He had also said that Congress could be indecisive on the matter if it came to power. Sharing his opinion about the Indian elections, however, has irked most of his political opponents in Pakistan who have accused Imran of doing a flip-flop on his opinion of Modi. "A state has friendly relations with another state, not with a personality," PPP senator Sherry Rehman was quoted as saying by Dawn. She also questioned Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi who had previously accused India of hatching a conspiracy against Pakistan. "You (Qureshi) said that India is getting ready for an adventure, (then) why did the prime minister say that dialogue can only take place if Modi wins the Indian elections?" While PM Modi has taken a tough stand against Pakistan for its support to terrorist organisation, Pakistani politicians - mainly those in the opposition - regard him as a threat to their country. On Thursday, many senators said Modi was a 'threat to Pakistan.' While Pakistani politicians continue with their bickering, the country's government finds itself in a tight spot over the entire matter. Qureshi tried to defend Imran's statements and said that politicians are taking it out of context. In the overall scheme of things, however, most politicians were seen searching for that precise context. An Indian woman, Uzma Ahmed, who was repatriated after being forced to marry a Pakistani man at gunpoint asserted on Thursday that she will start an initiative where women like her can contact her and she will help them. She said that she is planning to start a helpline number and an NGO, 'Daughter of India', to help women, who have been kept hostages in Pakistan. "I'll start an initiative where women like me will be able to contact me on a number, I'll help them out. I am planning to start a helpline number and NGO with the name 'Daughter of India'. It will help women, who have been kept hostages in Pakistan. I want to give a message to those women who have bitter experiences. They must flush out old memories and start a new chapter of their lives," said Uzma. Uzma met a Pakistani man, Tahir Ali, in Malaysia and then went on to meet him in Pakistan where she got to know that he has four children from his previous marriage. She was then reportedly forced to marry him at gunpoint and was sexually assaulted. She managed to approach the Indian High Commission for help. Uzma was brought back to India on May 25, 2017, through government intervention. She said that it took her two years to overcome the trauma. Speaking to news agency ANI, she added that now she has been able to get over those memories. Uzma said that she is making a fresh start as she now runs her own beauty parlour. Recalling her situation, Uzma said that she was mentally disturbed as initially people didn't accept her and she wasn't in contact with anyone but slowly her situation changed for the better. A biopic is being made on her story and is set to make it to the big screen. The story is based on how an Indian diplomat's efforts repatriate an Uzma from Pakistan where she was allegedly forced and duped into marrying against her choice. "I want to thank Rakeshji for producing a film on my life. The work is in progress," she informed. The film is based on the real-life story of JP Singh, India`s former Deputy High Commissioner in Islamabad, who helped Ahmed`s return. "It took me two years to overcome the trauma. Now I have flushed out all those memories. I was mentally disturbed. Initially, people didn't accept me when I returned from Pakistan. The people in my locality were not ready to accept me. I wasn't in touch with anyone but slowly they became welcoming," she said. Uzma was kept as a hostage by him in remotely situated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for a month. Thanking External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, she said, "She is like my mother. She gave me a second life. She could not visit my beauty parlour but sent her best wishes." Jammu: Seventy-nine-year-old Avtar Krishen's last wish is to live the remainder of his life at his ancestral home in Kashmir, and like several displaced Kashmiri Pandits, the septuagenarian said he voted Thursday hoping a new government ends his three-decades "exile". Krishen is among the seven lakh-odd Kashmiri Pandits who had to flee the Valley in the wake of spread of terrorism in 1989-90. The Baramulla and Jammu parliamentary seats in Jammu and Kashmir went to polls in the first-phase of the general elections along with 89 other Lok Sabha seats in India on Thursday. "I have again voted with the hope that a new government will ensure my return and rehabilitation in my native place in Kashmir," said Krishen, who casted his vote at the polling booth in Jagati camp in Jammu for a candidate in Baramulla in Kashmir. The camp is one of four that houses displaced Kashmiri pandits. Jagati has around 15,000 residents. The 79-year-old, who fled his home in a remote hamlet in north Kashmir's Kupwara district in 1990, said he has voted with one wish-- returning to his roots. "I have voted in 1996, 2002, 2008 and 2014 assembly elections and 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 parliamentary elections. See how many governments were formed since then. But my vote for 'ghar wapsi' has not been addressed at all," said Krishen. He said he wants to take his last breath in his ancestral place and "this may be the last time that I will vote...My only wish is to return back to my roots" Returning officer Pankaj Anand told PTI that as many as 4,593 voters as per M-form procedures are entitled for voting at 26 polling stations in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi. The Election Commission in a notification said 21 special polling stations have been set up for Kashmiri Pandit migrant voters in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in Delhi. Kashmiri Pandits living across India, including Jammu and Udhampur, continue to vote for candidates in their home constituencies in Kashmir to keep their connect with the Valley However, they rue that respective governments at the Centre and in the state have assured but not ensured their return to their ancestral land with full dignity and security. Kashmiri Pandits every year January 19 mark their "exile" from the Valley and this year they completed 30 years. From a remote area in Kupwara's Wadipora belt, falling in the Baramulla constituency, Chuni Lal, also an elderly, believes that his vote will ensure his return to his native place for permanent rehabilitation before his death. Though Lal and Krishen believe that voting for candidates in their home constituencies will fulfil their wish, Santosh from Sopore in Baramulla said it is futile as their demands have failed to find takers. "Who does not want to return to their homes in the Kashmir valley. We have voted for returning in past elections, but no government has ensured our return for the past 30 years. "What am I voting for again. It is futile, but we still have faith. They don't want us to return", he said. Eighteen-year-old Vanshika, a first-time voter, said though she has voted for a candidate in Baramulla, she feels that her dream of returning to her ancestral place in Kashmir will never be fulfilled.? Many youngsters, including first-time voters Rohit Bhat of Bandipora and Ritika of Baramulla, cast their votes at polling stations in Muthi and Purkhoo camps. They said their votes are not only for permanent rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits but also for a "stable and strong" central government that can deal with the inner and outer challenges that country is facing, and ensure stamping out of terrorism. HYDERABAD: All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday slammed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for saying that peace talks are more likely to take place if Prime Minister Narendra Modi wins the Lok Sabha poll once again. The Hyderabad MP stressed that Imran must know the fact that in India election is held in a free and fair manner but in Pakistan the Army and intelligence agency control the electoral process. "I condemn the statement of Imran Khan. He has no right to interfere in the electoral process of a great country like India. He comes from a country where the electoral process is controlled by their Army and ISI. We have free and fair elections. It is completely wrong on part of Imran Khan to say that he wants Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India so that Kashmir issue can be solved. I would like to remind him that Kashmir is not anybody`s private property," Owaisi told reporters after casting his vote. Owaisi also hit out at PM Modi saying that he always try to portray himself as a victim of opposition and Pakistan. Referring to Kashmir, the AIMIM chief said that Kashmir is the heart of India and it is an integral part of the country. "Kashmir is an integral part of India. Kashmir is our heart. It is correct that there is a lot to do in Kashmir, in which Modi has failed. But the Prime Minister has tried to portray himself as a victim of Opposition parties and Pakistan, and that they do not want to see him as Prime Minister," he said. "But now Imran Khan is himself saying that the Pakistan establishment, that is ISI, wants Modi as Prime Minister. I request the proud people of India to ensure that we do not allow Imran Khan`s wish to get fulfilled. People will come out and decide who should lead our great nation," Owaisi added. On Tuesday, Imran had said that "there might be a better chance of peace talks with India if Prime Minister Narendra Modi wins the upcoming elections". Speaking on the notice served to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao by Election Commission for allegedly making anti-Hindu comments, Owaisi said: "I am very surprised that PM did not get a notice for his speech in Vardha where he equated terrorism with one religion. He should have got notice. As far as KCR is concerned, I am sure he will give a satisfactory response to the Election Commission." (with ANI inputs) The polling for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections took place in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday amidst several violent clashes across the state. Clashes broke out between workers of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSR CongressParty (YSRCP) at various places in the state as voting started. In a polling station at Srinivasapuram village of Gurajala assembly constituency in Guntur district, clashes broke out between the TDP and YSRCP workers while the polling was underway. A TDP leader, S Bhaskar Reddy, was killed during clashes at Tadipatri town, a stronghold of controversial TDP leader JC Diwakar Reddy, whose son Pawan Kumar was in the fray on TDP ticket. TDP leaders have accused the YSRCP workers of killing Reddy. #WATCH Andhra Pradesh: A clash broke out between workers of TDP and YSRCP at a polling station in Srinivasapuram Village of Gurajala assembly constituency in Guntur district. #IndiaElections2019 #AndhraPradeshElections2019 pic.twitter.com/lF0edCFuFf ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 YSRCP supporters alleged that the TDP cadres forcefully stopped one of their supporters outside the polling booth when the voting was going on. When YSRCP supporters opposed, a clash erupted among them in which electronic voting machines (EVMs) and other polling materials were destroyed. Former Speaker and TDP leader Kodela Siva Prasad Rao was badly attacked by YSRCP supporters at Yanamatla village in Sattenapalli in Guntur district, where he had gone to see the polling. In another incident, TDP supporters attacked YSRCP leader A Anil Kumar Reddy at Mitta Meeda Palle town in Rajampet Mandal of Kadapa. YSRCP workers alleged that TDP workers prevented them from entering nearby villages. Clashes were also reported from Kolla Vari Palle and Savana Vari Palle villages. TDP workers allegedly abused YSRCP leader Meda Mallikarjuna Reddy and prevented him from entering the polling booth. A clash broke out between YSRCP and TDP workers in Puthalapattu Constituency in Bandarlapalli, Andhra Pradesh and the police resorted to lathi-charge. #WATCH Jana Sena MLA candidate Madhusudhan Gupta smashes an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at a polling booth in Gooty, in Anantapur district. He has been arrested by police. #AndhraPradesh pic.twitter.com/VoAFNdA6Jo ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 At Gudem Cheruvu town at a polling station in Jammalamadugu Mandal of Kadapa district, TDP and YSRCP supporters clashed in which one YSRCP worker was injured. He was shifted to the nearby hospital for treatment. A tense situation also prevailed for some time at Machilipatnam, following a verbal altercation between workers of YSRCP and JSP. The police intervened immediately and controlled the situation. Police said a YSRCP worker were killed in a poll-related group clash in Anantapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh. The clash occurred at Veerapuram village under Tadipatri Assembly constituency in the afternoon. The deceased have been identified as Pulla Reddy of YSRCP. Andhra Pradesh: A YSRCP worker has been taken to a hospital after he was injured in a clash which broke out between YSRCP and TDP workers at a polling station in Jammalamadugu Mandal of Kadapa district today. #IndiaElections2019 #AndhraPradeshElections2019 pic.twitter.com/JTQ0c7AnWL ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 TDP and the YSRCP workers clashed at Ramanakkapeta village in Nuzividu assembly constituency. The police immediately intervened to restore normalcy. In Anantapur district's Guntakal, former MLA and contesting candidate of Jana Sena Party, Madhusudan Gupta, smashed an EVM in a fit of rage alleging that party symbols were not properly printed on the ballot unit. He also shouted at the polling personnel on duty. He was immediately arrested by the police. #WATCH: Clash broke out between YSRCP and TDP workers in Puthalapattu Constituency in Bandarlapalli, Andhra Pradesh. Police resorted to lathi-charge pic.twitter.com/q7vxRIR0R8 ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 Andhra Pradesh, which went to polls on Thursday to elect 25 members of the Lok Sabha and 175 members of the State Legislative Assembly, recorded over 54 per cent polling till 5 pm. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. This is the first general election in the state after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and creation of Telangana in June 2014. Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 48 constituencies of Maharashtra. It was formed prior to the 1951 elections. It has six Vidhan Sabha segments. All the Assembly Constituencies that fall in Aurangabad parliamentary constituency are - Kannad, Aurangabad Central, Aurangabad West (SC), Aurangabad East, Gangapur and Vaijapur. Named after Emperor Aurangzeb, the city is surrounded by several historical monuments including the famous Ajanta and Ellora Caves. Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency of Maharashtra: Full list of candidates, polling dates Maharashtra Lok Sabha constituencies: All you need to know The Aurangabad Lok Sabha Constituency (constituency number 19) consists of 1,417,964 number of electorates in totality, of these 744,932 are males and 673,032 are females as the Election commission of India 2009 data suggests. Chandrakant Bhaurao Khaire of the Shiv Sena is the incumbent Member of Parliament from this constituency. In the last 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Khaire got 520902 votes and defeated Patil Nitin Suresh of the INC who got 358902 votes. For the crucial Lok Sabha election 2019, Shiv Sena has reposed faith in its sitting lawmaker Chandrakant Bhaurao Khaire renominated him from the Aurangabad Lok Sabha Constituency. Khaire will face a tough challenge from Congress candidate Subhash Zambad. In Maharashtra, the main electoral contest is between the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance and the Congress-NCP alliance. Maharashtra is the second largest state in the country in terms of Lok Sabha seats. Uttar Pradesh has 80 seats and Maharashtra 48. So, it is important for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the Opposition to win more and more seats in the state. As per the seat-sharing formula, the BJP and its ally Shiv Sena are contesting on 25 and 23 seats respectively of the total 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra. After several months of deliberations, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have formed an alliance in Maharashtra for the general elections 2019. As per the deal, Congress will contest on 26 seats, whereas the NCP will contest on 22 seats. The two senior partners will part with two seats each for their allies. Some key smaller parties like Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana, Bahujan Vikash Aghadi, Peasant and Workers Party, factions of Republican group leaders, like Jogendra Kawade and RG Gavai, independent leader Ravi Rana have also joined hands with the opposition ranks. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena and Swabhiman Paksha together registered a victory on 42 seats in Maharashtra. The Congress bagged twos eats, while the NCP four. New Delhi: Congress on Thursday claimed that a laser light was pointed at Rahul Gandhi during a roadshow in Amethi a day earlier. The party said that it was a security scare and added that it had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs about it. MHA, however, said it had been informed by the Director of Special Protection Group (SPG) that the light was from a mobile phone of a Congress photographer. Congress had said that Wednesday's incident is a security scare and that the laser light could have also been from a sniper rifle. "A perusal of his media interaction will reflect that a laser (green) was pointed at his head, intermittently on at least 7 separate occasions in a short period; including twice at his temple on the right side of the head," a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, signed by Congress leader Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Singh Surjewala, said. MHA, however, said that it has not received any letter from the party. It further added that the Director of SPG had informed that the light was from a mobile phone. "SPG has informed that the 'green light' shown in a clipping was found to be that of a mobile phone used by an AICC photographer, who was video graphing the impromptu press interaction of Rahul Gandhi near the collectorate in Amethi," MHA said, according to news agency ANI. Rahul Gandhi is an SPG protectee and the Congress is demanding a thorough investigation into the incident. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday registered a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) alleging that members of the Dalit community were stopped from casting their votes in Uttar Pradesh. It added that the Dalit voters were stopped by the police and the administration. Speaking to news agency ANI, BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra said that the party has requested immediate action and informed the EC that "higher-ups had a hand in this". The party lodged another complaint with the EC regarding a malfunction of an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Citing a video, the BSP levelled allegations saying that in the video it is seen that though the 'elephant' symbol is being pressed in an EVM but vote is going to BJP's 'lotus' symbol. Mishra added that though the BP had complained against it but no action was taken. Speaking to news agency ANI, BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra said, "In Uttar Pradesh today, the police and administration stopped members of Dalit community from casting votes. We've registered a complaint with Election Commission regarding this & requested immediate action. We've told EC that higher-ups had a hand in this." "We've registered another complaint with Election Commission & have sent them a video clip of EVM, in which it is seen that 'elephant' symbol is being pressed but the vote is going to BJP's 'lotus' symbol. Our people had complained against it but no action was taken," added Mishra. Satish Chandra Mishra, BSP: In Uttar Pradesh today, the police & administration stopped members of Dalit community from casting votes. We've registered complaint with Election Commission regarding this & requested immediate action. We've told EC that higher-ups had a hand in this pic.twitter.com/nVcMG7C1Cm ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 11, 2019 Polling took place in eight parliamentary constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh in the first phase of Lok Sabha poll. Three Union ministers -- VK Singh (Ghaziabad), Satyapal Singh (Baghpat) and Mahesh Sharma (Gautam Buddha Nagar) -- are in the fray in the first leg of the seven-phase polls. Joint Chief Electoral Officer Ramesh Chandra Rai said there was no report of any impersonation, bogus voting, obstruction to polling or violence from anywhere in these constituencies, In Muzaffarnagar, BJP MP Sanjeev Balyan stoked a controversy by demanding that male officials check the identity of burqa-clad women at poll stations where women security personnel have not been posted. In the first phase, over one crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 16,518 booths set up inside 6,716 polling centres to decide the fate of 96 candidates. Politically crucial Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Of the 80 seats in UP, the Samajwadi Party is contesting on 37 seats, BSP on 38, and the RLD on three seats. The state will head for voting in all the seven phases. The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday issued show cause notices to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over their speeches violating Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The EC issued the notice to Mayawati over her speech in Deoband appealing to Muslims not to vote for a particular party, finding that the BSP chief had prima facie violated the model code of conduct. The chief electoral officer on Sunday had sought a report from Saharanpur district administration on Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati's speech during the joint SP-BSP-RLD rally in Deoband. Chief Electoral Officer L Venkateshwarlu had received several complaints and he sought a report from the district administration on the issue. The commission, in its notice to Mayawati, said prima facie it is of the opinion that the BSP chief has violated provisions of the model code of conduct. It also asked Mayawati to explain her stand regarding her statement. The EC said she should give an explanation within 24 hours of receiving the notice otherwise it would take its decision without making any further reference to her. State BJP vice president JPS Rathore had also written to the chief electoral officer, alleging that appealing to Muslims not to vote for a particular party amounts to fanning religious passion and is a hindrance in holding free and fair polls. During the rally on Sunday, Mayawati had said the Congress was busy dividing the votes and cautioned the gathering to guard against any such attempt. "In western UP, where people of all communities live...In Saharanpur, Bareilly, where there is a huge Muslim population...I want to tell the Muslim community...Don't divide your votes...Give it to the BSP, SP and RLD alliance," she had said. The EC issued the notice to CM Adityanath for his "Ali" and "Bajrang Bali" remarks while addressing a rally in Meerut. Finding him prima facie guilty of violating the model code of conduct, the commission asked him to respond. CM Adityanath had compared the Lok Sabha election to a contest between 'Ali', a revered figure in Islam, and Bajrang Bali, the Hindu god Hanuman. "Agar Congress, SP, BSP ko 'Ali' par vishwaas hai toh humein bhi 'Bajrang Bali' par vishwaas hai (If the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have faith in Ali, we have faith in Hanuman)," the UP CM had said. His statement came while referring to BSP chief Mayawati's speech at a rally in Deoband, where she urged Muslims to back the alliance. Hyderabad: The Congress in Telangana Thursday demanded that security of strong rooms, where Electronic Voting Machines used in the Lok Sabha polls are kept, be assigned either to the Army or CRPF. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy asked the Election Commission to look into the need for special security measures at all strong rooms across Telangana. "Since the votes will be counted on May 23, 2019, ie. after 42 days, special measures are needed to ensure that EVMs remain safe, untouched and inaccessible from all kinds of tampering or manipulation," he said. Reddy claimed that serious allegations of EVM tampering or manipulation were levelled during the Legislative Assembly elections held in December last. He demanded that the responsibility of security of strong rooms be assigned to the Army or CRPF. Local police should be prohibited to access the strong rooms, the Congress leader said. Their role must be confined to providing basic logistic support. He also sought permission to the recognised political parties to deploy their cadre at strong rooms for vigilance. Reddy demanded that high-security network jammers be installed around all strong rooms to protect them from "possible wireless hacking of EVMs." "CCTV footage of all booths of polling day and also the footage to be recorded at strong rooms till counting day must be preserved. All spare EVMs, which were not used in polling, should be either sent to other States for next phases of polling or sealed," he said. Several voters turned up in exercise their franchise in Naxal-affected areas across Chhattisgarh amid threats and IED blast during the first phase of Lok Sabha Election on Thursday, April 11. In Narayanpur, which comes under Bastar constituency, Naxals planted an Improvised explosive device near a polling station in Pharasgaon, which was later defuse. The IED was planted by Naxalites in the area, said the Superintendent of Police, adding, No one was injured in the incident. In Dantewara, Naxals put up posters in polling booth, appealing people not to vote. However, long queues were observed since in polling stations Voters in Naxal-affected regions of Dantewada and Sukma amid heavy security. Police arrested four Naxals and seized three firearms from them in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district Thursday while polling was underway in the state's Bastar Lok Sabha constituency. The Naxals, belonging to Maad division of Maoists, were apprehended from Bedre area in the morning when a joint team of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) and district force was out on an area domination operation, the official said. A thick security blanket, comprising around 80,000 state and paramilitary personnel, has been thrown across the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency. Seven candidates are in the fray in Bastar constituency. Chhattisgarh will witness polls in the first three phases of General election - April 11, 18 and 23 - for its 11 parliamentary constituencies. On Tuesday, Naxals triggered an IED blast in Dantewada, which killed sitting BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi, his driver and three personal security officers. AMARAVATI: A Jana Sena Party candidate in Andhra Pradesh was arrested after he damaged an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) on Thursday as polling for the 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175-member Assembly was underway in the state. Madhusudan Gupta threw the EVM on the floor at a polling station in the Guntakal Assembly constituency of Anantapur district, the police said. Gupta, who had come to cast his vote at the polling station in Gutti, was angry with the polling staff over names of Assembly and Parliament constituencies not being displayed properly. He lifted the EVM and threw it on the floor. The machine was damaged in the incident. Gupta was immediately arrested after the incident, the police added. Reports of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctions and glitches emerged from several constituencies during the first phase of Lok Sabha Election, voting for which is currently underway on Thursday, April 11. Election Commission officials said that in some polling stations, voting was halted temporarily due to the malfunctioning of either the EVM or the Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. In Andhra Pradesh, EVM malfunctioning halted the polling process in some constituencies. At Kanchikacherla village of Krishna district and Rajam town of Srikakulam district, voting was stalled till the machines were rectified or replaced. Voting was delayed at booth numbers 154, 196, 198 and 200. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President Chandrababu Naidu expressed his unhappiness over EVM glitches. Speaking to media, Naidu said that polling was delayed at several places as the EVMs were not functioning. He said an EVM was not working where Chief Electoral Officer Gopal Krishna Dwivedi went to cast his vote. In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner, Naidu wrote, Likely that many voters who returned may not come back for voting even if polling is resumed after replacement / repair of existing EVMs.Therefore repolling needed in all polling stations where polling had not commenced upto 9.30am. Incidents of EVM glitches also emerged from West Bengal's Cooch Behar and Alipurduar constituencies. The voting process in a number of polling stations in Cooch Behar was temporarily disrupted for after the machines stopped working. Alleging conspiracy, Trinamool Congress district chief Rabindranath Ghosh said, "How can so many EVMs go bad? We smell a conspiracy. I have tried to complain to the Election Commission but they are not reachable. So I have informed the District Magistrate." Few incidents of EVM malfunctioning were reported from some booths in Bihar's Nawada Lok Sabha, Gaya and Jamui constituencies. Snags in EVMs were also reported from Odisha's Malkangiri and Chitrakonda areas under Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat, Lamptaput and Jeypore in Koraput and Gopalpur, Digapahandi and Berhampur. Several voters returned from a booth at Godibali under Kashipur block of Rayagada district following delay in voting due to technical glitches in EVM, sources said. In Assam too, reports of EVM glitches emerged from Lakhimpur and Kaliabor constituencies. In an unrelated development, a Jana Sena Party candidate Madhusudan Gupta threw the EVM on the floor at a polling station in the Guntakal Assembly constituency of Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district. He was later arrested. With agency inputs The first phase of Lok Sabha poll started at 7 am on Thursday with voters in 91 constituencies across 18 states and 2 Union Territories exercising their franchise to decide the fate of 1279 candidates. Union Textile Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani filed her nomination papers from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. She will take on Congress president Rahul Gandhi from this seat which is considered the pocketborough of Gandhis. Rahul filed his nomination from Amethi from Wednesday. Former Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination papers from Rae Bareli on Thursday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address public rallies in Bihar and Assam on Thursday. BJP president Amit Shah will address rallies in West Bengal and Tripura. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will address rallies in Sambhal, Amroha and Bareilly Lok Sabha constituencies. Thank you for joining us. Please do join us again on Friday (April 12) for live updates on Lok Sabha election. Here are all the highlights from April 11 (Thursday): * Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath alleged Congress president Rahul Gandhi had "no time" for his parliamentary constituency Amethi but Union minister Smriti Irani, if elected from the seat, will ensure "all-round" development of the area. Irani has pitted herself against the Congress chief who has won thrice from the seat. * Union Minister and BJP's candidate for the Amethi Lok Sabha seat Smriti Irani declared assets worth over Rs 4.71 crore. In her affidavit, Irani has declared movable property worth over Rs 1.75 crore. Her immovable assets are worth about Rs 2.96 crore, which include an agricultural land valued at over Rs 1.45 crore and a residential building of Rs 1.50 crore. In the movable category, Irani has cash in hand till March 31 totalling about Rs 6.24 lakh besides over Rs 89 lakh in bank accounts. She also has over Rs 18 lakh in NSS and postal savings insurance and another Rs 1.05 lakh in other investments. Irani, who is contesting against Congress president Rahul Gandhi, has vehicles valued at Rs 13.14 lakh and jewellery worth Rs 21 lakh. There is no FIR pending against her and she has not taken any loan. * She (Mehbooba Mufti) can block me, but till when will she keep blocking 130 cr people of the nation? There is a wave in this country and if she doesnt flow with it, she'll drown. In 2014 there was a wave, in 2019 there is tsunami, there is development: Gautam Gambhir * Lok Sabha election: Voter turnout till 3pm in Lakshadweep is 51.25 per cent, in Uttarakhand is 46.59 per cent, in Manipur is 68.90 per cent, in Nagaland is 68 per cent, in Telangana is 48.95 per cent, in Assam is 59.5 per cent, in Meghalaya is 55 per cent, in Uttar Pradesh is 50.86 per cent, in West Bengal is 71.01 per cent, in Mizoram is 55.20 per cent, and in Tripura West parliamentary constituency is 68.65 per cent. * Countdown to TMC's downfall will begin from May 23, when we win 23 seats from West Bengal. T of TMC stands for Tushtikaran (appeasement of Bangladeshi Infiltrators), M stands for Mafia and C for Chitfund, says Amit Shah at Raiganj. * At least, 10 electronic voting machines (EVMs) were replaced in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor when discrepancies were detected during their mock trial here before the beginning of the polling. Rakesh Kumar, Sector Magistrate Bijnor, said, "There were reports that some EVMs were displaying `lotus` symbol after pressing the button against `elephant` symbol at some polling booths.""The elections are being held peacefully here. There were some issues during mock polling. So we changed the entire set of EVMs," Kumar said. * Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani files her nomination from Amethi parliamentary constituency. Amethi: Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani files her nomination from Amethi parliamentary constituency. #IndiaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/RL3U2TeBbv ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 11, 2019 * Congress wrote to Home Minister over breach in security of its president Rahul Gandhi, saying when Gandhi was addressing media after filing nomination from Amethi, "a persual of his interaction will reflect that a laser was pointed at his head, on at least 7 separate occasions." Congress wrote to Home Minister over breach in security of its president Rahul Gandhi y'day; says Gandhi was addressing media after filing nomination from Amethi, "a persual of his interaction will reflect that a laser was pointed at his head, on at least 7 separate occasions" pic.twitter.com/f3Jmnjhzs5 ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 * Sonia Gandhi files nomination papers from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. * Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath holds a roadshow in Amethi ahead of Smriti Irani's nomination. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath holds a roadshow in Amethi. pic.twitter.com/ZdCVdr7QaC ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 11, 2019 * Sonia Gandhi performs 'havan' ahead of filing nomination from Raebareli. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also present. Sonia Gandhi performs 'havan' ahead of filing nomination from Raebareli. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also present #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/5QFXDiYILS ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 11, 2019 * "When Modi comes back again then their corruption will be completely finished, their dynastic politics will be finished, their loot in name of poor will stop, their politics of case and religion will stop," PM Modi said in Bhagalpur. * All that I have been able to do is because you made me your chowkidar. Only the strong-willed can talk about peace...you all know what Pakistan was before 2014...they used to attack us and then threaten us...you are aware of how that has changed...you know what we did, we entered their homes and attacked them...I know what needs to be done...we were earlier shackled now I have broken them," PM Modi said at a rally in Bihar's Bhagalpur. * Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani and her husband Zubin Irani perform 'pooja' ahead of her filing nomination from Amethi parliamentary constituency. Amethi: Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani and her husband Zubin Irani perform 'pooja' ahead of her filing nomination from Amethi parliamentary constituency #LokSabhaElections pic.twitter.com/MBpGLEbYpX ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 11, 2019 * Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reaches Amethi to accompany BJP leader Smriti Irani for the filing of her nomination papers. * "Faces of women in burkhas are not being checked and I allege that fake voting is being done. If not looked into, I will demand a repoll," Union Minister and Muzaffarnagar BJP candidate Dr. Sanjiv Balyan told media. Union Minister and Muzaffarnagar BJP candidate Dr. Sanjiv Balyan: Faces of women in burkhas are not being checked and I allege that fake voting is being done. If not looked into, I will demand a repoll pic.twitter.com/Gphlm2NoRx ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 11, 2019 * Election Commission reprimands Revenue Department for violating protocol. (Read more) * PM Narendra Modi appeals voters to vote in record numbers. (Read more) * Visuals from polling booth number 97 in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora, where voting is underway for Lok Sabha election. Jammu & Kashmir: Visuals from polling booth number 97 in Bandipora, where voting is underway for #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/00cvqN9PfN ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 * Flower petals being showered and 'Dhol' being played to welcome voters at polling booth number 126 in Baraut, Baghpat. #WATCH Flower petals being showered and 'Dhol' being played to welcome voters at polling booth number 126 in Baraut, Baghpat. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/UEvBcihB0B ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 11, 2019 * Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his family after casting their vote for Lok Sabha poll in Amravati. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his family after casting their vote for #LokSabhaElections2019 in Amravati. pic.twitter.com/QzlYYfNzjd ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 * Voting begins for 91 constituencies in 20 states and union territories in the 1st phase of Lok Sabha poll. Voting begins for 91 constituencies in 20 states and union territories in the 1st phase of #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/7RyvOElPz9 ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 * RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat present at polling booth number 216 in Nagpur, to cast his vote for Lok Sabha poll. Maharashtra: RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat present at polling booth number 216 in Nagpur, to cast his vote for #LokSabhaElections2019 . Voting on 7 parliamentary constituencies in the state will be held today. pic.twitter.com/EAcsBoi3Mp ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 * Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi to file her nomination from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency at 12:40pm. * Voters begin to arrive at polling booths 156 and 158 in Dibrugarh ahead of the voting for the first phase of Lok Sabha election. Voting on 5 parliamentary constituencies in the state will be held today. Assam: Voters begin to arrive at polling booths 156 and 158 in Dibrugarh ahead of the voting for the first phase #LokSabhaElections2019 Voting on 5 parliamentary constituencies in the state will be held today. pic.twitter.com/WfYj6g7FZ5 ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2019 * "75,000 security personnel will be on duty, monitoring of region being done using UAV & drones. Polling parties & EVMs have been air dropped at 159 polling centers that fall under sensitive areas," Bastar DM, A Tamboli on preparedness for Lok Sabha poll. Hundred-and-seven-year-old Sumitra Rai, the oldest voter in Sikkim, cast her vote on Thursday, April 11, during the first phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha Election 2019. Rai, arrived in a wheelchair, at Kamrang Secondary School polling station at Poklok Kamrang in South Sikkim, to cast her vote. Rai later posed with her voter ID card after exercising her franchise. About 11 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the first three hours of polling in 32 legislative assembly constituencies and the lone Lok Sabha constituency in Sikkim. Polling for the lone Lok Sabha seat and the Sikkim assembly is being held simultaneously here. There has been no report of any untoward incident till 10 am, the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) in the state said. Polling is being held in 567 polling stations spread across four districts in Sikkim. In 2017, 126-year-old Chandravadiya Ajiben Sidabhai became the oldest voter to cast her vote in Rajkot during Gujarat elections. KOLKATA: Buffeted by the steady erosion in its vote bank, and exodus of its leaders and workers to the state's ruling TMC and a resurgent BJP, the Congress is fighting a grim battle to stay relevant in West Bengal politics in the Lok Sabha elections. The party, which ruled Bengal for more than two decades since Independence, is standing at a crossroads where its influence has diminished over time and is now limited to only to some pockets. Battered and bruised by factionalism, a seemingly unending quest for a credible and effective leadership, and organisational frailty, the Congress in West Bengal was relegated to a distant fourth position with little over nine per cent vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. "Yes, it is indeed a battle to prove our existence in Bengal. It is true that we have lost much of our strength in the last few years but we are still a force to reckon with and can't be just written off," Congress's state coordination committee chief and MP Pradip Bhattacharya said. The 77-year-old West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra is hopeful of reviving the party in the state, as he feels that its victories in states like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will have a ripple effect in West Bengal. "It is true our strength in Bengal is limited but I am confident that this time we would not only retain our four seats but also increase our tally. In few districts such as Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur, we are a strong force. We would retain our bastion," Mitra, who assumed the reins of the party from Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury last year, said. A sizeable section in the state Congress feels that aligning with the TMC in the 2001 assembly, 2009 Lok Sabha and the 2011 assembly polls, when Mamata Banerjee's party ended the unbroken 34-year stint of the Left in power, was a big mistake as it exposed its vulnerability and increased dependence on allies. "It was the high command's decision to sacrifice the interest of the party for forging alliance with the TMC that led to such a disastrous situation in Bengal," said a senior state Congress leader on condition of anonymity. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a sitting Lok Sabha MP, said after gaining an upper hand, the TMC engaged in constant poaching of Congress leaders and elected representatives. "Since the 2016 assembly polls, 17 of our MLAs have been poached by the TMC. The TMC ensured that secular forces like Congress are weakened in order to make space for the BJP in the state," Chowdhury alleged. The latest addition to the Congress's list of defectors is Malda North MP Mausam Benazir Noor, who is now contesting the seat as a TMC candidate. The Congress had won four seats in West Bengal in 2014, including Malda North, and secured 9.5 per cent votes. The TMC bagged 34 seats and had a vote share of 39.05 percent, the CPI(M) and the BJP secured two seats each, clinching 29.71 and 17.02 per cent votes, respectively. The Congress and the Left Front, as a last ditch effort to remain relevant in Bengal politics, had initiated talks for a seat-sharing deal which failed. According to Congress sources, although the party has decided to contest 40 out of the 42 seats in the state, it is focusing on retaining the four seats it currently has, besides the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Dinajpur. "We have concentrated strength spread over two districts (Malda and Murshidabad), and we are going to reap a rich electoral harvest this time," state Congress vice president Om Prakash Mishra claimed. A look at the Congress's history in West Bengal post Independence reflects a downward spiral in its fortunes since 1977, when the first non-Congress government was installed at the Centre after a massive popular movement led by socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan brought down the Indira Gandhi dispensation. For several years after Independence, when the party was led by stalwarts like B C Roy, West Bengal was a Congress bastion. But with the steady growth of the Left, first an undivided CPI and then the CPI(M) in the 1960s and 1970s, began its decline. The Congress lost its pre-eminent position on West Bengal's political stage after it was humbled in the 1977 assembly polls by the Left Front. People became disenchanted with the party driven by dissension and squabbling. The grand old party met its nemesis in Mamata Banerjee when she broke away from it and formed the Trinamool Congress in 1998. The Congress's best-ever tally in West Bengal in Lok Sabha elections since it lost power in 1977, was in 1984, when it won 16 seats with 48 per cent votes, as the party rode a wave in its favour following Indira Gandhi's assassination. It recorded its second-best performance in 1996, when it won 9 seats and secured 40 per cent votes. However, with the formation of the TMC in 1998, a major chunk of the anti-Left votes was bagged by Banerjee's party, which became the principal opposition. In the elections that followed, it could clinch only around 13 per cent votes. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the party recovered a bit as it won 6 seats with 14 per cent vote share. But the formation of UPA-1 government with Left's support again hastened it decline, as the opposition space shrunk in West Bengal. The Congress and the Left Front joined hands for the 2016 assembly polls to dislodge the TMC from power but the alliance came a cropper. The Congress's inability to garner for itself a significant portion of the opposition's vote share was evident in its dismal performance in the 2018 panchayat polls, which saw four-cornered contests with the BJP emerging as a force to reckon with. The ruling TMC swept the elections, but the BJP emerged as its main challenger, while the Congress and the Left were relegated to the margins. There is also a feeling in the state Congress that the party high command has neglected it for long. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who had last visited the state during the 2016 assembly polls, returned to the state only recently to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. In around 30 Lok Sabha seats, the party's vote share has dropped below 5-6 percent. NAGPUR: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat was among the early ones to cast his vote for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in Nagpur, Maharashtra, on Thursday. Union Minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari is the BJP's candidate from Nagpur, while Congress has given ticket to Nana Patole. It is to be noted that Nana Patole was once a BJP MP. Bhagwat and RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi arrived together at a polling booth at Bhauji Daftari School in Mahal area around 6.50 am. Talking to media after casting his vote, Bhagwat appealed the voters to exercise their voting rights. "Voting is necessary and a sacred responsibility of all. Vote for national security, development and identity," he said. Referring to the None of the Above (NOTA) option available on the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for those voters who do not want to cast their voters in favour of any candidate in the fray, the RSS chief said that one must say what he/she wants. "Being quiet does not work, you have to say yes or no," he said. Joshi also appealed the people to vote in record numbers and cast their vote in favour of the suitable candidate. "I hope the government elected after polls will work in the interest of the nation," he added. Polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha poll started at 7 AM in Maharashtra's seven constituencies - Nagpur, Wardha, Ramtek, Bhandara-Gondiya, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli-Chimur and Yavatmal-Washim. All these seats are in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed the voters to turn out in record numbers to exercise their voting rights in the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. "2019 Lok Sabha elections commence today. I call upon all those whose constituencies are voting in the first phase today to turn out in record numbers and exercise their franchise. I specially urge young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers," the Prime Minister tweeted. As India commenced its journey for the Lok Sabha election on Thursday, microblogging platform Twitter buzzed with conversations and debates on election hitting a tweet mark of 1.2 million on a single day on the first day of polling. The polling started in the morning for 91 seats in 18 states and 2 union territories and the conversation on the social media platform reflected this. Twitter recorded 45.6 million tweets related to the election from March 11, the day election dates were announced till April 11. Of the 45.6 million tweets recorded during that period, 1.2 million were Tweeted on Thursday alone during the first phase of the election. Throughout the campaigning period, politicians and political parties have been using Twitter to communicate with citizens all over the country. Campaigns, manifestos and announcements around policies and key social issues have accounted for some of the top-tweeted moments as voters got ready to go to the poll. Along with politicians and parties, citizens have been using the platform to address their queries directly to contesting leaders. Top election conversations were reportedly on the topic "national security" followed by "religion", "jobs", "agriculture" and "Taxes and Trade" respectively. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the most mentioned figure during this first phase of the election conversations on Twitter. Other leaders mentioned in the top on the social media platform were BJP president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra." Indians within the country and across the world have been engaging in dynamic conversations around the elections with relevant hashtags, replies and retweets, to discuss the topics that matter most to them. In the past month, leading up to elections, national security has emerged as the most talked about election-related topic on Twitter. Whether it's asking candidates questions directly about their policies or discussing what the future of India looks like, citizens have the opportunity to voice their views on key national issues in real-time on Twitter. Among the constituencies that went for polls in the first phase--eight are in Uttar Pradesh, five in Uttarakhand, four in Bihar, seven in Maharashtra, five in Assam, four in Odisha, two each in Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and West Bengal, and one each in Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appealed the voters to turn out in record numbers to exercise their voting rights in the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. "2019 Lok Sabha elections commence today. I call upon all those whose constituencies are voting in the first phase today to turn out in record numbers and exercise their franchise. I specially urge young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers," the Prime Minister tweeted. 2019 Lok Sabha elections commence today. I call upon all those whose constituencies are voting in the first phase today to turn out in record numbers and exercise their franchise. I specially urge young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers. Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 11, 2019 RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat also appealed to voters to exercise their franchise. Bhagwat made the call after casting his vote in Nagpur at polling booth number 216. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is BJP's candidate from Nagpur, while the Congress has fielded Nana Patole from this seat. "Voting is our duty, everyone should vote," Bhagwat told media. Polling for 91 Lok Sabha constituencies in 18 states and two Union Territories started at 7 AM on Thursday amidst tight security.Among the constituencies going for polls in the first phase are - eight in Uttar Pradesh, five in Uttarakhand, four in Bihar, seven in Maharashtra, five in Assam, four in Odisha, two each in Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and West Bengal, and one each in Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. Over 14 crore voters will exercise their voting rights to decide the fate of 1279 candidates who are in the fray. More than 1 lakh polling booths have been set up across the country, the EC said in a statement issued on Wednesday. The EC added that 7764 third gender voters will also exercise their franchise in the first phase. The polling for 543 Lok Sabha seats will take place in seven phases on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19 respectively. Counting of votes will take place on May 23. More than 14.21 crore voters are all set to decide the fate of 1,279 candidates in 91 constituencies across India in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, April 11. States going to polls are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, and UTs Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep. The results of the general elections will be declared on May 23. The first phase is the third highest in terms of number of Lok Sabha seats among the seven phases in which the election will be conducted. More than 1.70 lakh polling booths set up across 20 states and Union Territories. According to official data, a total of 14,21,69,537 voters are eligible voters can cast their ballot. There are 7,22,17,733 male voters, 6,98,55931 female voters and 7,764 third gender voters. The EC has said that timing of vote would be from 0700 hrs to 1800 hrs in general, from 0700hrs to 1700hrs in the north-east part of the country except Manipur and Nagaland where it would be till 1600hrs. Late on Wednesday evening, Chief Election Commission even appealed to voters at large to come out in huge numbers to make the election a success. "It's a humble appeal that more and more people should come and cast their votes so that the bedrock of democracy strengthens. Our efforts will be fructified if each one of us who is an elector shows adequate zeal and faith in democratic system," he said. Voters in the first phase - as well as those in subsequent phases - must carry their electoral roll and Elector Photo Identity or one of 11 alternative photo IDs. Photo voter slip cannot be used as a standalone identification document any longer. (Click here to know more) New Delhi: The latest 'it' couple of Bollywood, Arjun Kapoor and Malaika Arora recently arrived together at actor Chunky Pandey's residence for a bash. Although the duo has not publicly accepted about dating each other yet on and off they are seen hanging out together. Malla, as she is fondly called by her fans and Arjun were both seen wearing a shade of blue to the party. The couple was clicked by the paps as they entered the house in the same car. Check out their photos: (Pic Courtesy: Yogen Shah) A few days back, rumours of their impending wedding on April 19, 2019, caught fire. However, turns out it was just a figment of someone's imagination, as the duo has never really talked about their wedding in public. Their dating rumours sparked off when both were seated next to each other in a fashion show last year. The pictures went viral on social media, followed by their regular Bandra spotting at various parties and dos. On the work front, Arjun is busy shooting for Ashutosh Gowariker's period drama 'Panipat'. He has changed his look for the movie and will be seen donning a moustache this time. Recently, Malaika shared pictures of her vacay from the Maldives and Arjun too posted a picture of his separately from the island spot. But neither of them shared a picture together, leaving fans confused about whether they went together or not. New Delhi: Insurance companies will have to inform about claim settlement status to policyholders at various stages of processing from July, Irdai said Wednesday. Insurers need to adopt a clear and transparent communication policy to protect the interest of policyholders, it said in a circular. When it comes to claims, there is a need to make available a tracking mechanism for policyholders so as to enable them to know the status of their claims, it added. "In order to ensure fair and transparent claim settlement procedures, all insurers shall notify about the status of the claim at various stages of its processing. "In case of health insurance, where third party administrators (TPAs) are engaged for rendering claims services, it is the responsibility of insurers to ensure that status of claim shall be notified to the claimant at every stage of claim," the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said. Clear and transparent communication play a vital role in servicing of insurance policies and in ensuring that the benefits of insurance policies flow to the beneficiaries in a timely manner, it added. Irdai also asked insurers -- life, health and general -- to send all communication about issuance and servicing of policies through letter, e-mail, SMS or any other electronic form approved by it. "In case of health insurance, where TPAs are engaged for rendering health services, insurers shall ensure that all related communications such as issuance of ID card are sent either by the TPA or shall be carried out by insurers on their own," the circular said. The companies will also have to send brief messages to customers to enhance awareness apart from sending necessary caution messages like not falling prey to spurious calls/offers. Insurers may use simple, easy to read and understand language. And wherever feasible, the communication should be in regional or local language of the place of residence of the claimants, besides English/Hindi, the authority said. "This shall be implemented by insurers with effect from July 1, 2019," Irdai said. LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after Ecuador withdrew its asylum which had allowed him to take refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for the last seven years. The computer hacker faces the prospect of extradition to the United States. He was also found guilty in a British court on Thursday of breaking bail terms dating back to 2012. WHO IS JULIAN ASSANGE? The 47-year-old Australian-born Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 and it published secret official information including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, infuriating the United States and other countries. Assange`s supporters see him as a hero who challenges censorship and champions free speech. Others say he risked security by revealing secret documents. WHY WAS HE IN ECUADOR`S EMBASSY IN LONDON? In November 2011, London`s High Court said Assange should be extradited to Sweden for questioning over alleged sex crimes after accusations by two former WikiLeaks volunteers in 2010. After losing an appeal, Assange took refuge in Ecuador`s embassy in June 2012 to avoid being extradited. He was granted political asylum by the anti-American left-wing former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa. Assange remained in the embassy after Sweden dropped the investigation against him in 2017, fearing the United States wanted to prosecute him. Sweden`s then Chief Prosecutor Marianne Ny said in 2017 that the Swedish probe could be reopened should the situation change. WHY DID ECUADOR CHANGE ITS MIND ABOUT ASSANGE? In 2017 elections, Correa was replaced as Ecuadorean president by Lenin Moreno who has since moved Ecuador`s foreign policy to a more U.S.-friendly stance. He has been openly critical of Assange in recent months, calling him an inherited problem and accusing him of violating the rules of his asylum. WHAT SECRETS DID WIKILEAKS REVEAL? In July 2010, WikiLeaks released more than 91,000 documents, most of them secret U.S. military reports about the war in Afghanistan. In October of that year, it released another 400,000 classified military files chronicling the war in Iraq from 2004 to 2009. WHAT CHARGES DOES ASSANGE FACE IN THE UNITED STATES? After years of speculation that Assange was a wanted man in the United States, U.S. prosecutors announced charges against him after his arrest on Thursday, accusing him of conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to gain access to a government computer. His arrest paved the way for his possible extradition to the United States. Assange would face up to five years in prison on the U.S. charge. WHAT HAS ECUADOR SAID SINCE THE ARREST? Ecuador`s Moreno said the South American country had complied with its duties to Assange under international law and he accused Wikileaks of repeatedly violating the rules of his asylum, including a provision which was meant to stop him intervening in the internal matters of other countries. A leak of Vatican documents in 2019 was the most recent example of Assange violating that policy, Moreno said in a video posted on Twitter. "I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty," Moreno said. "The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules." WHAT HAS THE UNITED KINGDOM SAID SINCE THE ARREST? "I am sure that the whole House will welcome the news this morning that the Metropolitan Police have arrested Julian Assange," Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament. "This goes to show that in the United Kingdom no one is above the law." Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was right that Assange`s should be decided in the British judicial system. "Julian Assange is no hero. He has hidden from the truth for years and years," Hunt told Sky News. Junior foreign minister Alan Duncan thanked Ecuador for paving the way for Assange`s arrest by withdrawing his asylum after "extensive dialogue" between London and Quito. WHAT DO ASSANGE`S SUPPORTERS SAY? Assange`s lawyer Jennifer Robinson said the arrest set a "dangerous precedent" for the media. "This precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States," she said. SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country needs to deliver a "telling blow" to those imposing sanctions by ensuring its economy is more self-reliant, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday. It was the first time Kim stated North Korea`s position on the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi that collapsed in February, and signalled a continued focus on economic development, a strategic direction officially declared a priority last April. On North Korea`s position on the summit, Kim said he would double down on efforts to create a self-supporting national economy "so as to deal a telling blow to the hostile forces who go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring (North Korea) to its knees," according to KCNA. U.S.-North Korean engagement has appeared to be in limbo since the Feb. 27-28 summit in Hanoi, which collapsed over differences about how far North Korea was willing to limit its nuclear programme and the degree of U.S. willingness to ease economic sanctions. Kim has continued to highlight his economic push in recent weeks despite the lack of sanctions relief. State media have published images and reports of Kim`s visits to at least four economic projects in five days over the past week, including a remodelled department store, tourist resorts, and an economic hub near the border with China. At a similar plenary session last year, Kim formally announced a "new strategic line" that focused on economic progress and improving North Koreans` lives, rather than the previous two-pronged approach of economic and nuclear weapons development. North Korea is expected to convene a session of its rubber-stamp legislature, the Supreme People`s Assembly, on Thursday. In its Wednesday meeting, the ruling party also elevated Choe Son Hui, one of North Korea`s leading negotiators with the United States, to a position as member of the party`s Central Committee. Despite not explicitly naming the "hostile forces" that imposed sanctions, Kim is displaying a more hardened stance toward Washington than was recently in state media, analysts said. The comments were reported hours ahead of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Washington on Thursday to discuss North Korea and other alliance issues. Moon has suggested that sanctions could be eased to allow inter-Korean economic engagement in return for some nuclear concessions by North Korea, but so far Washington has not agreed. "It did not directly mention the U.S., but linked sanctions with hostile forces," said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. "He`s saying North Korea would take an independent course unless the U.S. offered to lift sanctions. You maintain sanctions, you`re a hostile force; if you ease sanctions, you`re not." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a congressional committee on Wednesday that he would like to leave "a little room" in the sanctions in case North Korea makes "substantial" progress toward giving up its nuclear weapons. In Hanoi, Kim sought relief from major U.N. sanctions, but Pompeo said those must stay in effect until North Korea completely denuclearises. "The enforcement regime, the core U.N. Security Council resolutions, need to remain in place until the verification of denuclearization has been completed," he said. Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday said that it has handed over more questions to India on its dossier on Jaish-e-Mohammad's involvement in the dastardly Pulwama attack and claimed that New Delhi has not provided any "actionable evidence" on the terror attack. Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal during his media briefing said that the reply to previous questions was also not given by India so far. Pakistan has handed over further questions to the Indian High Commissioner on the Pulwama dossier, Faisal said, "We await the Indian response to questions shared with them." The spokesperson claimed that India has so far not provided "any actionable intelligence" related to the terror attack in Pulwama in Kashmir on February 14 in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. He claimed that Pakistan has "credible intelligence" that India could launch a "misadventure" against Pakistan this month. "Pakistan will respond decisively if its resolve is tested by India," he said. India handed over the dossier to Pakistan on February 27 with specific details of JeM's complicity in the Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed and presence of JeM terror camps and its leadership in Pakistan. Pakistan earlier said that it has not found any link between the JeM and the Pulwama terror attack and demanded more information/evidence from India. India expressed disappointment over Pakistan's response to its dossier on JeM's involvement in the Pulwama attack, saying Islamabad continues to be in "denial" on the issue of cross border terrorism. To a question on Kartarpur corridor, Faisal said the two sides have agreed for talks on the corridor which will be held at Zero Line in Kartarpur Sahib. Speaking on the US-Taliban talks, he said Pakistan would not be part of the next round of talks between Taliban and the US in Doha this month. He said there would also be an intra-Afghan dialogue on 14th and 15th of this month, organised by Russia. The first such meeting was held in Moscow in February this year. The spokesperson said that Pakistan would continue to support peace talks in Afghanistan as dialogue is the only good way to resolve outstanding issues. KHARTOUM: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was deposed by the army on Thursday and consultations were under way to form a transitional council to run the country, drawing a line under three decades of autocratic power that included allegations of genocide. Sudanese sources told Reuters that Bashir, 75, was at the presidential residence under "heavy guard". A son of Sadiq al-Mahdi, the head of the country`s main opposition Umma Party, told al-Hadath TV that Bashir was being held with "a number of leaders of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group". It was not known what would now happen to Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and is facing an arrest warrant over allegations of genocide in Sudans Darfur region during an insurgency that began in 2003 and led to death of an estimated 300,000 people. The downfall of Bashir follows the toppling this month of Algerian strongman Abdelaziz Bouteflika, also following mass protests after three decades in power. Government sources and the minister of production and economic resources in North Darfur, Adel Mahjoub Hussein, told Dubai-based al-Hadath TV that Bashir`s presidency was over and consultations were being held on creating a ruling military council. Early on Thursday morning, state television said the military would make an announcement soon. But hours later no statement had been issued, amid reports of differences about the make-up of the transitional council. MILITARY RULE AGAIN? Names that have been circulating include Vice President and Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf, an ex-military intelligence chief, also an Islamist, and former army chief of staff Emad al-Din Adawi. Adawi is said to be favoured by regional neighbours at odds with Bashir over his Islamist leanings. Thousands of people flocked to an anti-government protest outside the ministry on Thursday, while huge crowds took to the streets in central Khartoum, dancing and shouting anti-Bashir slogans. Protesters chanted: "It has fallen, we won." Demonstrators called for a civilian government and said they would not accept an administration led by military and security figures, or by Bashir`s aides. Omar Saleh Sennar, a senior member of the Sudanese Professionals` Association, one of the main protest groups, said it was waiting for the army statement and expected to negotiate with the military over a transfer of power from Bashir. "We will only accept a transitional civilian government," Sennar told Reuters. Kamal Omar, 38, another demonstrator, said: "We will continue our sit-in until we prevail." Some demonstrators, who have rallied against Bashir since Dec. 19, said they feared the delay would allow him to go into exile. Troops deployed around the defence ministry and on major roads and bridges in the capital. Soldiers stormed the headquarters of Bashir`s Islamic Movement, the main component of the ruling National Congress Party. Protesters also attacked the offices of Sudan`s intelligence and security service in the eastern cities of Port Sudan and Kassala on Thursday, witnesses said. FATE UNCLEAR Bashir, a former paratrooper who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1989, has been a divisive figure who has managed his way through one internal crisis after another while withstanding attempts by the West to weaken him. Sudan has suffered prolonged periods of isolation since 1993, when the United States added Bashirs government to its list of terrorism sponsors for harbouring Islamist militants. Washington followed up with sanctions four years later. The latest crisis has escalated since the weekend, when thousands of demonstrators began camping out outside the defence ministry compound, where Bashir`s residence is located. Clashes erupted on Tuesday between soldiers trying to protect the protesters and intelligence and security personnel trying to disperse them. At least 11 people died, including six members of the armed forces, the information minister said, citing a police report. Since December, Sudan has been rocked by persistent protests sparked by the government`s attempt to raise the price of bread, and an economic crisis that has led to fuel and cash shortages CROSBY, Texas/WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump signed two executive orders in the heart of the Texas energy hub on Wednesday targeting the power of states to delay natural gas, coal and oil projects as he looks to build support ahead of next year`s election. Trump`s orders direct his Environmental Protection Agency to change a part of the U.S. clean water law that has allowed states to delay projects on environmental grounds. New York has delayed pipelines that would bring natural gas to New England, for example, and Washington state has stopped coal export terminals. "My action today will cut through destructive permitting delays and denials ... what takes you 20 years to get a permit, those days are gone," said Trump, surrounded by workers in hard hats and yellow vests. He signed the orders at a training center for petroleum industry workers near Houston, an event sandwiched between fundraising events for the 2020 presidential campaign. Critics vowed to oppose Trump`s actions. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the orders were a "gross overreach of federal authority that undermines New York`s ability to protect our water quality and our environment." Any attempt to usurp state authority on the projects will be fought "tooth and nail," the Democrat said. Chris Stockton, a spokesman for Williams Cos Inc, which has fought Cuomo`s denial of its Constitution gas pipeline from Pennsylvania, said the company supported Trump`s effort to "foster coordination, predictability and transparency in federal environmental review." The orders direct the EPA to review and update guidance issued during the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama on the so-called 401 provision of the Clean Water Act. The measure required companies to get certifications from states before building interstate pipelines and projects approved by the federal government. In 2017, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat and 2020 candidate for president, used the provision to block a permit for the Millennium Bulk Terminal, a coal export facility that would have expanded the ability of companies to send Western coal to Asian markets. Inslee, who has centered his campaign on tackling climate change, said Trump`s orders would put the country on a "fatal path" of unconstrained fossil fuel use and hold back clean energy development. `EVERY TOOL AT OUR DISPOSAL` The orders are part of the Trump administration`s "energy dominance" policy to increase oil, gas and coal production, but forcing the EPA changes will take time. A senior administration official told reporters the agency would have to follow normal procedures, including a comment period, and that projects already tied up in litigation "are obviously a much longer-term issue." A lawyer with experience in energy regulation in the U.S. government said it was unclear how much impact the orders would have. A change in the clean water law`s requirement for companies to get permits from the states would have to be made in Congress, said Fred Jauss, a partner at the firm Dorsey & Whitney. Michael Brune, the chief of the Sierra Club, which sues the government frequently, said the group would fight the orders "with every tool at our disposal." One order directs the transportation secretary to propose allowing liquefied natural gas, a liquid form of the fuel, to be shipped in approved rail cars. The orders also give the president the power to issue permits for projects that span international borders, taking that power from the secretary of state. Trump issued a presidential permit last month for the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline to bring crude from Canada. Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge Inc supports the orders` "focus on enhancing the predictability of the permitting process and the critical importance of investing in energy infrastructure in the U.S. and Canada," company spokesman Michael Barnes said. Enbridge had an oil pipeline project from Canada to the United States halted by opposition in Michigan. The orders could also speed projects in Texas. Energy investors vying for permits to build oil export terminals along the Gulf Coast say they have worked closely with Trump officials in a bid to speed regulatory reviews of facilities capable of loading supertankers. U.S. and state agencies overseeing permit applications have taken too long to approve projects, the investors said, adding they were worried their projects would miss the most profitable years of the U.S. crude export boom. Four energy groups led by Trafigura AG, Carlyle Group, Enterprise Products Partners LP and Enbridge have applied to build terminals in Texas. WASHINGTON: US prosecutors said on Thursday they had charged Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, with conspiracy in trying to access a classified US government computer with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010. Assange, arrested by British police in London and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy there, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the American charges, the US Justice Department said in a statement. His London arrest paved the way for his possible extradition to the United States. The Justice Department said Assange, 47, was arrested pursuant to the US/UK Extradition Treaty and accused him of involvement in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States. The indictment said that Assange in March 2010 engaged in a conspiracy to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on the US Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a US government network used for classified documents and communications. He was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. LONDON: The United States has requested the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, British police said, after they arrested him at the Ecuadorean embassy in London on Thursday. "Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station," the police said. "This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act. He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates' Court as soon as possible." Egypts Ministry of the Interior said in a statement on Thursday that police forces have killed six terrorists from the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group Hasm in Qalioubiya governorate, north of Cairo. The terrorists were killed in a shootout with security forces as police raided a building on a farm in Qalioubiya. The ministry said the raid was carried out based on intelligence received by the National Security Agency that the terrorists where planning attacks upon calls from the media platforms of the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood organisation, which aim to weaken stabilty and security in the country. Police seized two automatic riffles, 3 bullets magazines, a 9mm pistol, a birdshot rifle, and different types of bullets and detonative material used to produce IEDs in possession of the terrorists, according to the statement. Earlier in the day, Egyptian security had forces killed 11 terrorists in a shootout in North Sinai, the interior ministry said in a statement. The suspects were members of a terrorist cell in the provincial capital of El-Arish and were planning to carry out attacks on police and army forces in a number of vital areas, the statement said. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement on Thursday it has halted air flights to all Sudanese airports until further notice. The Ministry said it has informed all flight operators with the decision after the recent developments in Sudan and until conducting risk analysis procedures to ensure the safety of operation and obtain official approval before the resumption of flights. The statement confirmed that the countrys national airline EgyptAir has stopped its flights to Khartoum starting Thursday until further notice, following the Sudanese authorities decision to close airspace on Thursday afternoon. Earlier on Thursday President Omar Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years, was overthrown by the armed forces amid mass protests against his 30-year-old rule. Sudan's Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf said Al-Bashir, 75, was under arrest and in a "safe place," and that a military council was now running the country. A statement by Egypts Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Cairo backs the Sudanese people's choices in determining the future of their country. "Egypt is following closely and with great concern the current and accelerating developments the brotherly Sudan is passing through at this decisive moment in its modern historyand affirms its full support for the choices of the brotherly Sudanese people and their free will to shape the future of their country," the foreign ministry said. Search Keywords: Short link: Discussions were held last week between NATOs divisions and the Egyptian press as part of celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the organisations foundation, writes Ezzat Ibrahim and Ahmed Eleiba from Brussels Challenges facing the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) extend beyond pressures against its budget. Russias military expansion outside its borders and into regions such as Crimea, Ukraine and Syria is causing the ire of NATO member states. Also raising tensions in the organisation are the anticipated repercussions of Russias imminent withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Among the unorthodox threats NATO is currently occupied with is the alliances approach towards developments in the fight against terrorism after the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) and the possibility of terrorists relocating in new countries. Foreign IS recruits returning to their countries of origin from the wars in Iraq and Syria constitute a peril to their homeland as well as to NATO particularly in the absence of a clear strategy to neutralise their threats. Cyber-attacks feature high among the list of hazards that are making NATO worrisome. Hence, the establishment of NATOs Cyberspace Operations Centre in Mons in Belgium, to deter cyber-attacks against the infrastructure and polling stations during elections in NATO countries. Afghanistan remains in the centre of NATOs attention, amid uncertainties as to where the ongoing negotiations between the US and Taliban in Doha will lead. Washington welcomed the celebration of NATOs 70th anniversary last week, an occasion commemorated by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenbergs address to a joint session of Congress. But the celebratory climate barely concealed the unprecedented strain between the US administration and the rest of the transatlantic alliance. Since coming to power, US President Donald Trump has frequently criticised NATO policies, and while he may have softened his tone to a certain extent recently his stances continue to pose challenges to the alliance, especially on such matters as the distribution of the burden of military expenditures. Stoltenberg appears resolved to try to overcome such challenges following the renewal of his term as secretary-general until 2020. At the same time as the Washington commemoration, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division of NATOs Political Affairs and Security Policy Section and other bureaus arranged meetings between NATO officials and an Egyptian press delegation that included Al-Ahram Weekly. The discussions addressed major issues of current concern to NATO against the backdrop of changes in the security environment in Europe and the Middle East. What is NATOs outlook on Russias policies towards Europe? How is it responding to new security threats such as cyber-warfare? What is its vision for counter-terrorist operations and mechanisms for cooperation between NATO and partners outside the alliance such as Egypt? The answers to such questions offer important insights into NATOs thinking. Russia Russia dominated the discussions since from NATOs standpoint Russia presents a grave threat in the opinion of some of the officials at the meetings. They outlined a two-pronged approach to handling the Russian threat: defence and deterrence measures, on the one hand, and averting a clash, avoiding isolating Russia and sustaining dialogue, on the other. The policy for dealing with Russia is a two-sided coin, said a NATO source. Since 2014, Russia has forced NATO to contend with aggressive modes of behaviour as exhibited in attacks against its neighbours, in the intensification and escalation of tactically offensive military manoeuvres which have lacked monitoring transparency, making it impossible to identify their goals, and in violations of the INF. This is why we speak of the defensive and deterrent measures that need to be taken in order to protect NATO members. However, on the other side of the coin there is the dialogue process. We do not want a confrontation with Russia. Nor do we want to isolate it. According to the source, NATO has been forced to revise its position towards Russia since 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and deployed combat units on its western borders. Such actions have necessitated a shift towards deterrent and defensive measures such as the deployment of military forces along the eastern border of NATO countries such as Romania and Poland. Other responses have included NATO military patrols to monitor Russian military activity. Russia, in return, has boosted its military presence, though it denies the commonly cited statistics and argues that it is logistical support personnel for military activities that have led to the inflated figures. NATO does not accept this, the source said. On the other hand, some participants in the meetings feared that channels for NATO-Russian dialogue were narrowing. They noted that Russia had reduced its diplomatic presence in NATO countries. There are now only 20 accredited diplomats at the ambassadorial level and only a Russian charge daffaires at NATO. Moscow stopped sending an ambassador to NATO a year and a half ago. Ukraine is only one of the controversies fuelling tensions between NATO and Moscow. Among the others is the situation in Afghanistan where, according to the NATO officials at the meetings with the Egyptian press, there had been a certain level of coordination until 2014. There had been channels of dialogue at that time in the framework of the relationship between Moscow and the Taliban regarding what was termed the hybrid warfare in the country. Other sources of tension include the controversy over the Russian role in influencing the outcome of elections in various countries through cyber-attacks and the attempted murder of the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK. NATO officials find Russian President Vladimir Putins actions worrisome. The source told the Egyptian journalists that at present, I dont think that the leadership structure in Russia will change as long as Putin is there, quite simply because he will not relinquish control. Hes been there for more than 20 years. That is longer than Stalin. Russian young people know no other leader. Hes now 65 and is still youthful. Other Russian leaders are also similar to Putin, which is why its difficult to deal with them. On the Russian presence in Africa, those at the meetings believed that Putin is in the process of seizing a window of opportunity. One source said that as I see it, Russia is in a race with China in Africa. Whenever China enters an area there, the Russians rush in too. But the Chinese come with investments, whereas the Russians lack such resources. In Syria, meanwhile, Russia has realised its long-standing dream of reaching a warm-water port, according to the source. Russia has a military base in Syria. It has always dreamed of having a port on the Mediterranean. Some of the speakers harboured suspicions over how Russia was using religion as a foreign-policy tool. One of the participants said that the Russians have their own Christian Church. It is clear that they miscalculated, however. It appears that they were planning to try to create a second Rome through their presence in the Orthodox countries. Counter-Terrorism An intelligence specialist in NATO outlined the alliances approach towards developments in the fight against terrorism, first addressing the question of definition on which there is still no consensus. The term terrorist has been understood in terms of the political violence that has prevailed in the world against the backdrop of civil wars, political strife or violence inflicted by governments against civilians generating feelings of persecution, marginalisation and injustice, which spurs some of the marginalised and underprivileged to rebel. We have formulated a number of points in this regard, but the definition is still too loose. The expert said that NATO had no particular strategy for fighting terrorism when the term began to gain currency decades ago. However, the situation changed after the 9 September attacks in 2001, at which point the organisation began to design counter-terrorist strategies and mechanisms. In this framework, NATO furnished cover for the war in Afghanistan and initiated a drive in the Mediterranean region to prevent terrorist groups from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, he said. According to the source, NATO had no specific counter-terrorism administration before the end of the first decade of this century. It was introduced in 2012 when the allies began to examine how to fight terrorism collectively, as until that point countries dealt with the problem individually at the national level. From then on, NATO also became involved, he said. According to the expert, NATO has developed facilities, the most recent of which is NATOs Cyberspace Operations Centre in Mons in Belgium, to deter cyber-attacks. Other programmes and activities focus on countering Improvised Explosive Devices, dismantling terrorist support and funding networks, and halting illicit arms flows. The intelligence expert was sceptical with regards to optimism in response to the defeat of the IS group in Iraq a year ago and in Syria in March this year. The military operations had not stopped the ideology carried by foreign IS recruits returning to their countries of origin from the wars in Iraq and Syria, he said. He felt the need for a comprehensive plan, suggesting that the phenomenon was too dangerous and complex to be treated in an ad hoc manner or exclusively at the national level by the governments of the countries to which the recruits will be returning. The question of how and where to put the terrorist fighters on trial was only one aspect of this complex question, and while the expert did not necessarily see eye-to-eye with Trump on how this was handled, he felt that perhaps each country should bear the responsibility for prosecuting those of its citizens who had left the country for the crimes they had committed. The next few years will be difficult, he said. There is concern that even if the returnees are put in prison, they will incite others to commit terrorist acts or will influence others with the same ideology. He stressed the need to address what attracts recruits to the terrorist organisation to begin with and the need to look to the future in how we approach this ideology. It has to be stooped at the roots so that it doesnt grow again. This means studying what influences these young people. They need to have the appropriate educational and employment opportunities to keep them from wanting to enlist in these types of groups, he said. Turkey And Russia NATO has been troubled by Turkeys relationship with Russia to the extent that during last weeks anniversary celebration it was strongly intimated that Ankara would have to choose between its membership of the pact and Moscow. One of the NATO officials at the meetings said that it should be borne in mind that the bilateral relationship between the US and Turkey is their own business. However, the question of the Russian S-400 missile system that Ankara had agreed to purchase from Russia had aspects of concern to NATO. Whether or not to go ahead with the purchase is Turkeys decision, since it is a sovereign country. However, for NATO the question is to determine whether or not the system can work with NATO or whether it will be detrimental to NATO. He stressed that alternative offers had been put to Turkey. The MENA Region The situation in Libya was the entry point for discussion of matters concerning NATO and the MENA region in the light of the role that NATO played in the overthrow of the former Gaddafi regime, the repercussions of which continue to play out in the continued collapse of government in Libya and the mounting political crisis. A NATO operations official described the types of tasks his organisation had performed in countries where NATO has intervened, such as Bosnia, Kosovo, the former Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Afghanistan. However, when the subject of Libya came up, the speaker spoke as if he were conscious of some of the criticisms that have been levelled against NATO involvement there. In all the cases, it was necessary to invoke Article 5 [of the North Atlantic Treaty], which authorises the use of force. In taking this decision there was the question of whether the intervention would be valuable. If a decision is taken to invoke Article 5, this means there is a consensus among NATO members. Without such a decision, any intervention is bilateral. In the Libyan case, it had not occurred to us that we would actually have to intervene. If someone had told us before we invoked Article 5 that we would actually intervene we would not have believed him, he said. The source went on to explain that NATOs intervention in Libya had come from a UN Security Council Resolution. The Gaddafi regime did things that necessitated a response from the international community. Therefore, we took measures to enforce a flight ban, impose a naval blockade, and to keep Gaddafi from threatening his own people. NATO worked to realise the desires of the international community with respect to the situation in Libya at the time. It had not foreseen what would happen in the future. That was not one of its tasks. There was no planning for the future. This affected Libyas neighbours, I believe. They could also have done more than they did. With respect to Afghanistan, the source said it was difficult to discern the future. We dont know exactly what will happen. Will there be a peace agreement? What will its terms be? How will it be implemented? Will it require a NATO presence? How will US troops adjust to developments, he asked. Iraq, by contrast, was clearer, as there was a NATO plan to train trainers in logistical operations. The organisation would also offer advice to civilian ministries and assist with medical services. The source described NATOs 300-person mission in Iraq as a joint operations mission of a civilian and military nature. Although relatively limited in size, the mission is important to NATO because of its value for Iraq. NATO also conducts naval operations in the Mediterranean in the framework of its defence and deterrence strategies. The NATO operations official said that these operations are important because they contribute to solving a number of crises. The Mediterranean Coast Guards Operation is an awareness-raising and capacity-building operation designed to improve the ability of coast guards to meet the current challenges in the Mediterranean. The official did not respond to a question relating to the behaviour of certain NATO members towards some countries in the Middle East, such as Turkeys support for the militias in Libya. Cyber-Defence NATO has taken steps to counter this relatively new and unconventional threat. A cyber-warfare specialist told the Al-Ahram delegation that NATO was currently focused on completing the Cyberspace Operations Centre in Mons due to be inaugurated next year, 13 years after this threat first surfaced in Estonia in 2007. The threat increased with the cyber-attack against Ukraine in 2008, and numerous attacks have occurred since then. However, the source felt that NATO had not risen to the challenge too late. The decision to build the centre was taken in 2017, and once it is completed it will offer excellent deterrent capacities. A staff of some 200 experts will be engaged in repelling cyber-attacks against NATO members and protecting their communications networks and other infrastructure from attacks. The expert stressed that the centre would only intercept hostile cyber-activity. It would not launch counter-attacks as it is difficult to identify precisely their origin. Most probably, certain governments are behind them, but they vary in intensity from one attack to another, he said, adding that he foresaw the rise of this type of warfare in the future in view of advances in computer technology. The civilian sector will contribute to the operations. The companies that operate in this field are civilian firms, but they work together with security establishments, he said, citing as an example the collaboration between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon in the US. He noted that NATO was working to secure 60 networks in member countries and that there were commitments to fund and develop these capacities, promising to boost the capacities of NATO members land, sea and air forces. One area of contention among NATO members in this rapidly developing field is emerging 5G technology, especially in view of the Chinese-US tech war and the crisis over the Chinese company Huawei. The matter is currently under intensive discussion among NATO members, the cyber-warfare expert said. Some think that there are considerable benefits to be had from the less costly Chinese equipment that is being used everywhere in the world. On the other hand, there is also the security argument. Would Beijing use Huawei technology as a threat, for example? There is no real gunpowder at issue, so it is not the use of the technology per se that poses the problem. At all events, we still believe that this is something that is better dealt with through legislation in the US and Europe because a total ban is unacceptable, he said. The source said that the security services offered by the Cyberspace Operations Centre in Mons would remain a NATO monopoly. This is not a development agency, he said, meaning that the know-how and technologies it uses will not be made available to countries outside NATO. Nevertheless, this did not obviate the possibility of cooperation with some countries to enhance their capacities to deter cyber-attacks and extinguish cyber-fires. He added that there were not all that many cyber experts in the world and producing them required a special educational environment. Governments had to offer experts appropriate incentives or else the private sector would snap them up even after all the effort and money the public sector had put into their training, he concluded. * A version of this article appears in print in the 7 April, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: NATO at 70 Search Keywords: Short link: Sudans main protest group will only accept a civilian government composed of opposition figures, a senior member of the group told Reuters on Thursday. Omar Saleh Sennar, a senior member of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), said the group was waiting for a statement by the army and expected to negotiate with the military over a transfer of power away from President Omar al-Bashir, who stepped down on Thursday. We will only accept a transitional civilian government composed of the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, he said, referring to a statement setting out the SPAs demands. Search Keywords: Short link: Sudanese protesters Thursday stormed buildings of the powerful intelligence services in two eastern cities after officers refused to release political prisoners, witnesses said. The official SUNA news agency had announced that the National Intelligence and Security Service was releasing all political detainees across the country. But protesters in the eastern cities of Kasala and Port Sudan took matters into their own hands when the releases failed to materialise. "Protesters stormed the building and looted all the equipment that was there," a witness from Kasala told AFP by telephone. Search Keywords: Short link: Sudan's powerful intelligence service announced Thursday it was freeing all the country's political detainees, state media said. "The National Intelligence and Security Service has announced it is releasing all political detainees across the country," the official SUNA news agency said. Search Keywords: Short link: World's fastest hydrogen sensor could pave the way for clean hydrogen energy Hydrogen is a clean and renewable energy carrier that can power vehicles, with water as the only emission. Unfortunately, hydrogen gas is highly flammable when mixed with air, so very efficient and effective sensors are needed. Now, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present the first hydrogen sensors ever to meet the future performance targets for use in hydrogen powered vehicles. The researchers' ground-breaking results were recently published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Materials. The discovery is an optical nanosensor encapsulated in a plastic material. The sensor works based on an optical phenomenon - a plasmon - which occurs when metal nanoparticles are illuminated and capture visible light. The sensor simply changes colour when the amount of hydrogen in the environment changes. The plastic around the tiny sensor is not just for protection, but functions as a key component. It increases the sensor's response time by accelerating the uptake of the hydrogen gas molecules into the metal particles where they can be detected. At the same time, the plastic acts as an effective barrier to the environment, preventing any other molecules from entering and deactivating the sensor. The sensor can therefore work both highly efficiently and undisturbed, enabling it to meet the rigorous demands of the automotive industry - to be capable of detecting 0.1 percent hydrogen in the air in less than a second. "We have not only developed the world's fastest hydrogen sensor, but also a sensor that is stable over time and does not deactivate. Unlike today's hydrogen sensors, our solution does not need to be recalibrated as often, as it is protected by the plastic," says Ferry Nugroho, a researcher at the Department of Physics at Chalmers. It was during his time as a PhD student that Ferry Nugroho and his supervisor Christoph Langhammer realised that they were on to something big. After reading a scientific article stating that no one had yet succeeded in achieving the strict response time requirements imposed on hydrogen sensors for future hydrogen cars, they tested their own sensor. They realised that they were only one second from the target - without even trying to optimise it. The plastic, originally intended primarily as a barrier, did the job better than they could have imagined, by also making the sensor faster. The discovery led to an intense period of experimental and theoretical work. "In that situation, there was no stopping us. We wanted to find the ultimate combination of nanoparticles and plastic, understand how they worked together and what made it so fast. Our hard work yielded results. Within just a few months, we achieved the required response time as well as the basic theoretical understanding of what facilitates it," says Ferry Nugroho. Detecting hydrogen is challenging in many ways. The gas is invisible and odourless, but volatile and extremely flammable. It requires only four percent hydrogen in the air to produce oxyhydrogen gas, sometimes known as knallgas, which ignites at the smallest spark. In order for hydrogen cars and the associated infrastructure of the future to be sufficiently safe, it must therefore be possible to detect extremely small amounts of hydrogen in the air. The sensors need to be quick enough that leaks can be rapidly detected before a fire occurs. "It feels great to be presenting a sensor that can hopefully be a part of a major breakthrough for hydrogen-powered vehicles. The interest we see in the fuel cell industry is inspiring," says Christoph Langhammer, Professor at Chalmers Department of Physics. Although the aim is primarily to use hydrogen as an energy carrier, the sensor also presents other possibilities. Highly efficient hydrogen sensors are needed in the electricity network industry, the chemical and nuclear power industry, and can also help improve medical diagnostics. "The amount of hydrogen gas in our breath can provide answers to, for example, inflammations and food intolerances. We hope that our results can be used on a broad front. This is so much more than a scientific publication," says Christoph Langhammer. In the long run, the hope is that the sensor can be manufactured in series in an efficient manner, for example using 3D printer technology. Facts: The world's fastest hydrogen sensor The Chalmers-developed sensor is based on an optical phenomenon - a plasmon - which occurs when metal nanoparticles are illuminated and capture light of a certain wavelength. The optical nanosensor contains millions of metal nanoparticles of a palladium-gold alloy, a material which is known for its sponge-like ability to absorb large amounts of hydrogen. The plasmon effect then causes the sensor to change colour when the amount of hydrogen in the environment changes. The plastic around the sensor is not only a protection, but also increases the sensor's response time by facilitating hydrogen molecules to penetrate the metal particles more quickly and thus be detected more rapidly. At the same time, the plastic acts as an effective barrier to the environment because no other molecules than hydrogen can reach the nanoparticles, which prevents deactivation. The efficiency of the sensor means that it can meet the strict performance targets set by the automotive industry for application in hydrogen vehicles of the future by being capable of detecting 0.1 percent hydrogen in the air in less than one second. The research was funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, within the framework of the Plastic Plasmonics project. ### About the scientific article: The article Metal - Polymer Hybrid Nanomaterials for Plasmonic Ultrafast Detection has been published in Nature Materials and is written by Chalmers researchers Ferry Nugroho, Iwan Darmadi, Lucy Cusinato, Anders Hellman, Vladimir P. Zhdanov and Christoph Langhammer. The results have been developed in collaboration with Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Warsaw, Poland. For more information: Ferry Nugroho, Researcher, Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, +46 31 772 54 21, ferryn@chalmers.se Christoph Langhammer, Professor, Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, +46 31 772 33 31, clangham@chalmers.se This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Thousands of people packed the streets of the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Thursday to protest against the army's announcement that President Omar al-Bashir would be replaced by a military-led transitional council, a Reuters witness said. The mood among protesters who earlier celebrated Bashir's expected departure had turned to anger, and many chanted, "Fall, again!" -- adapting an earlier anti-Bashir chant of "Fall, that's all!". The Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), Sudan's main protest group rejected the defence minister's statement, describing it as a coup detat that will reproduce the same faces" of the ousted regime. Those who destroyed the country and killed the people are seeking to steal every drop of blood and sweat that the Sudanese people poured in their revolution their statement read. The group called on all Sudanese to join the protesters to continue with their sit-in in front of the headquarters of the general command of the armed forces until civilian leadership is in place. Search Keywords: Short link: The uprising that resulted in the army's removal of president Omar al-Bashir from power on Thursday started with protests in December over a hike in bread prices. Here is a timeline: Bread protests Hundreds take to the streets in central Atbara and other cities on December 19 to protest the government's tripling of bread prices. The protests erupt the same day as the main opposition leader -- ex-prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi who was driven out in Bashir's 1989 coup -- returns from exile. Some protesters chant "No to hunger". In Atbara, they set fire to the headquarters of Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP). First deadly clashes The protests spread to Khartoum and other cities on December 20, demonstrators chanting "freedom, peace, justice" and calling for "the fall of the regime". Clashes break out as police try to disperse the crowds and eight demonstrators are killed. Other NCP offices are torched. Troops are deployed in Khartoum and other cities. On the sixth day of demonstrations, Bashir breaks his silence on December 24 and vows "real reforms". Bashir resists With no let-up in the near-daily demonstrations, 22 political groups issue a joint call on January 1 for a "new regime". Bashir sacks the health minister on January 5 over rising costs of medicine. Four days later, thousands chant support for Bashir at a rally in Khartoum. But in the capital's twin city of Omdurman there are more deaths in anti-government protests. On January 13, protests spread to the war-torn region of Darfur. Bashir tells supporters there: "Demonstrations will not change the government." Emergency rule declared On February 11, Human Rights Watch releases videos documenting violence by security forces against protesters including live fire, tear gas and beatings. Ten days later, security agents arrest several opposition activists as protesters try to march on the presidential palace. Bashir declares a nationwide year-long state of emergency on February 22, also dissolving the federal and provincial governments and appointing army and intelligence officers as provincial governors. Two days later, he swears in a new prime minister as riot police confront hundreds calling for him to resign. On March 1, Bashir hands his powers as chief of the ruling NCP to his deputy. Sit-in at army HQ The protests become less regular after the state of emergency and Bashir on April 4 acknowledges that demonstrators had "legitimate" economic concerns, calling for dialogue. But on April 6, thousands march again in Khartoum, gathering for the first time outside the military headquarters and chanting "One Army, One People". They set up camp at the complex, which also houses the president's residence, defying attempts by police and security agents to dislodge their sit-in with tear gas and gunshots into the air. On April 9, police follow the policy of non-intervention by the military and order their forces not to take action against the demonstrators. State media report that 11 people including six members of the security forces have been killed in one day, raising the overall official death toll in the demonstrations to 49. Bashir ousted On April 11, as state media announce the military is preparing an "important" statement, Khartoum residents flood the area around army headquarters, some chanting "the regime has fallen". Hours later, in an statement on state television Defence Minister Awad Ibnouf announces Bashir has been removed from power and detained by the army. "I announce as minister of defence the toppling of the regime and detaining its chief in a secure place," Ibnouf says. A transitional military council would replace Bashir for two years, he adds. Search Keywords: Short link: The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sparked passionate reactions from foes and allies alike on Thursday. Supporters branded his arrest by British police an assault on freedom and a trampling of asylum protections, while his enemies hailed it as an overdue step towards justice. The revelation that, on top of charges of breaking bail conditions, he was also arrested under a US extradition warrant kept secret for long -- as he had long claimed, often to scorn -- heightened the drama surrounding his detention. Here is a summary of reactions from officials, activists and celebrities to the 47-year-old Australian's arrest. UK: Assange is 'no hero' Assange's arrest shows "in the United Kingdom, no one is above the law," British Prime Minister Theresa May declared. British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt, said Assange "is no hero," stating: "He has hidden from the truth for years and years and it is right that his future should be decided in the British judicial system." Ecuador: 'sovereign right' "Ecuador has decided with sovereign rights to withdraw the diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange for repeatedly violating international conventions and the protocol of co-habitation," President Lenin Moreno said on Twitter. Moreno's government said Ecuadoran nationality granted to Assange in 2017 was also withdrawn "due to various irregularities found in his paper work." WikiLeaks: asylum halt 'illegal' "Ecuador has illegally terminated Assange's political asylum in violation of international law," WikiLeaks said on Twitter. Australia: 'due process' Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was "confident" that Assange "will receive due process in the legal proceedings he faces in the United Kingdom." She said consular officers would visit Assange in detention. UN expert: rights 'violations' Ecuador has exposed Assange "to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights" by placing him closer to extradition to the US, the United Nations special rapporteur on summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, told AFP by email. Snowden: 'Dark moment' "Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom," US whistleblower Edward Snowden said on Twitter. Russia: UK 'strangling freedom' "The hand of 'democracy' is strangling freedom," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Facebook. Ecuador leader branded 'traitor' "The greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history, Lenin Moreno, allowed British police to enter our embassy in London to arrest Assange... What he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget," Ecuador's former leader Rafael Correa wrote on Twitter. Sweden accuser: reopen case "We will do everything we can to get the prosecutors to reopen the Swedish investigation so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and be prosecuted for rape," his accuser's lawyer Elisabeth Massi Fritz told AFP. 'Pamela Anderson: 'shock' "I am in shock. How could you Equador (sic)? (Because he exposed you). How could you UK?" wrote the former "Baywatch" actress Pamela Anderson, reportedly a close friend of Assange, on Twitter. In colourful language, she suggested Britain acted under pressure from the United States and to divert attention from its woes over Brexit. Search Keywords: Short link: On Thursday, President Omar Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years, was overthrown by the armed forces amid mass protests against the government. Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Bin Auf said in a statement Al-Bashir, 75, was under arrest and in a "safe place," and that a military council was now running the country. The armed forces said that the country would be placed under a two-year period of military rule to be followed by elections. Bin Auf also announced a three-month state of emergency, a nationwide ceasefire and the suspension of the constitution. He also said Sudan's air space would be closed for 24 hours and border crossings shut until further notice. Thousands of people packed the streets of the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Thursday to protest against this step. The Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), Sudan's main protest group rejected the defence minister's statement, describing it as a coup detat that will reproduce the same faces" of the ousted regime. The group called on all Sudanese to join the protesters to continue with their sit-in in front of the headquarters of the general command of the armed forces until civilian leadership is in place. The political conflict in Sudan is a multidimensional one and, therefore, the future is in play. On the one hand, there was a delay in announcing the statement by Sudan's General Command of the People's Armed Forces due to deep "political and personal" disagreements between the top-level officers, said Haidar Ibrahim, a politics professor at the University of Khartoum. "Some of the officers are actually Islamists [who support the regime], while others remained silent and have not recently shown support for [Sudan's President Omar] Al-Bashir," he argued. It seems that the rejection by SPA of Bin Ouf Al-Bashir's defence minister and the vice president as an interim leader was based on the fact that he was one of Al-Bashir's trusted men. Atef Ismail, a Cairo-based SPA member, said that "Bin Ouf is like Al-Bashir, and he must be brought to trial instead of leading the state and people for two years." "This is just a palace coup that seeks to contain public anger, recreate the regime and give its figures a chance to arrange themselves, maintain their power positions and protect themselves from legal trials or even flee the country," said Ismail. Meanwhile, Mohamed Hussein, a member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which is the largest armed faction in Darfur, said that Bin Ouf is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is "why he faces rejection." Ahmed Haroun Al-Bashir's National Congress leader and a leading figure in the Sudanese Islamist Movement and Bin Ouf are on an the ICC's list of wanted people, which includes 55 names. Al-Bashir, Haroun and a number of leading figures in the National Congress and security forces have been put under arrest. "An act of betrayal [of Al-Bashir] by the Islamists and key figures of the regime has taken place. For example, Director of security Salah Koush unveiled the secret sites where Al-Bashir's men used to hold their meetings, which is why he has not been arrested so far," Ibrahim noted. "It seems he will be considered a witness in the case," Ibrahim predicted. Ibrahim added that it would be hard to "uproot the Islamists during the transitional phase, since they have governed the country since 1983, and even though people hate them, they are armed, well-organised and have money." Ibrahim said that he hopes the transitional phase "will have no cost, because it would be a huge one if a confrontation takes place." The SPA rejected that any individual on a list of political figures proposed for a transitional government, which has been widely circulated online, take part in any role during the transitional phase. "There are new developments every single day, and the counterrevolution embodied in the Islamists tried to change the list and publish a fake one, or remove some names from it," said Ismail. "Publishing a list with a limited number of names is unwise because the regime has hundreds of people who face different accusations." The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Darfur says it believes that the top priority during the transitional phase should be restructuring the army and collecting the weapons that have proliferated all over the country. "The regime has an official army, and another tribal-based one in western Sudan that offers quick support, in addition to Islamist militias," said the JEM's Hussein Sharaf. "All the issues in Sudan are priorities, and this will complicate the transitional process. If we do not deal with the matter with patriotism, I believe we will lose a lot," Ibrahim warned. Search Keywords: Short link: The United States and five European countries on Thursday called for a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan after president Omar al-Bashir was ousted by the army amid mass protests against his 30-year-long rule, diplomats said. The council is expected to discuss the situation in Sudan during a closed-door meeting on Friday that was also requested by France, Britain, Germany, Belgium and Poland. Search Keywords: Short link: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for a transition in Sudan that will meet the "democratic aspirations" of the people, his spokesman said. Guterres appealed for "calm and utmost restraint by all" after long-serving president Omar al-Bashir was ousted by the army after three months of mass protests against his 30-year-old long rule. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: Prominent Egyptian actor Mahmoud El-Guindy has passed away, Egypts actors union said in a statement early on Thursday. He was 74. El-Guindy died at a Cairo hospital where he had spent his last few days after a sudden decline in health, local media reported. His funeral is scheduled to take place on Thursday in his hometown in the governorate of Beheira. El-Guindy was born in the Nile Delta governorate of Al-Behiera in 1945. He started his film career in the 1970s after graduating the Higher Institute of Cinema. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1976 till 2019. El-Guindy was notably known for appearing ion the big screen with Egyptian megastar Adel Emam in Playing With The Big Boys (1991), Shams Al-Zanati (1991) . Nagy Al Ali (1992) and The Wedding (2009) were also among his films. In an illustrious TV Career, he appeared in more than 200 series, most notably My Dear Children, Thank You (1979) alongside the late comedian Abdel-Moneim Madbouly, Tears in Shameless Eyes ( 1980), also with Adel Imam, and Honey and Tears (1983). In theatre, El-Guindy starred with the late comedian Fouad El-Mohandes in 1979 theater classic It is Really a Respectable Family , then dozens of other plays. Search Keywords: Short link: Five acts are set in the downtown street of Egypt's capital from contemporary dance reflecting on society to a mind-bending visual projection For its Urban Visions segment, D-Caf is presenting four street performances and a visual projection on 12 April in the streets of downtown Cairo. The contemporary dance performances Burnout, Back to Zero, Horizons and Mix-Up will be performed back to back starting 3:30pm. Burnout (Ziggurat) is a co-production created by Ezzat Ismail and Nermine Habib from Egypt and Flora Eszter Sarlos and Krisztian Szilagyi from Hungary. The street dance routine explores the symptoms of a collective social burnout, where more and more people struggle with mental health and finding balance, desperately seeking deeper connections. Back to Zero is an interactive dance performance with calligraphy by German artist, choreographer and dancer Kadir Amigo. Amigo explores hidden places and attempts to transform and reclaim them through the act of dancing and writing, as he interacts with and draws inspiration from the urban heritage he encounters. Egyptian choreographer and dancer Shaymaa Shokry presents Horizons, a unique project in collaboration with dancers with disability. The piece explores tolerance and connection, and seeks to deconstruct mental and physical barriers giving space and time to self-expression and listening. On a lighter note, the acrobatic performance Mix-Up, from Egypt, seeks to engage with audiences through comedy and circus acts. Later in the day Parallel Projections will take place on the same street. The video-mapping show by Egyptian artist Islam Shabana and British video artist Josh Garner experiments with different mediums and technologies, accompanied by a soundtrack from Egyptian musician Ali Baghdady. Projected onto the surface of downtowns historical Suez Canal Bank building, the imagery create an optical illusion and immersive experience. Programme: Friday 12 April 3:30pm 4:30pm Back to Zero 4:45pm 5:00pm Horizon 5:15pm 5:40pm Burnout 5:45pm 6:15pm Mix-Up 7pm Parallel Projections Al-Sharifain Street, Downtown, Cairo Ahram Online is media partner of this year's D-CAF festival For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: The upcoming announcement of the American plan to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, tensions in the US-Turkish relationship, Israeli elections, Washingtons recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, ongoing US interest in strengthening the coalition against terrorism despite Trumps claim that the war against Islamic State (IS) is over, the rush of developments on the ground in Libya after Khalifa Haftar moved to liberate Tripoli from militias and ongoing demonstrations demanding change in Algeria and Sudan are only some of salient phenomena that frame the context of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisis visit to Washington. There is also the threat Iran poses to Washingtons interests as well as those of its Arab allies. Tehrans drive to obtain nuclear status and its support for terrorist organisations that have worked to destabilise Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Libya pose a grave danger, one aggravated by Tehrans pursuit of stronger alliances with both Russia and Turkey. Egypt is not only central to offsetting the dangers threatening the region, it is a cornerstone in building the broad coalition, including moderate Arab states and Israel, necessary to deter Iran from pressing ahead with a strategy that, if undeterred, will plunge the region into a full-scale war. But for Egypt to be effective in helping protect the region from the Iranian peril and the terrorists Tehran supports, Washington must first appreciate the importance of domestic stability in Egypt and, secondly, the need not to involve Egypt in major concessions in connection with the Palestinian cause. With respect to the first, rights advocacy organisations and research centres in the US have, as always, launched a campaign against the Egyptian president in advance of his visit. They marshalled the usual cliches on democracy and human rights, as can be seen in the editorial A New Egyptian Power Play, penned by the New York Times editorial board, to urge the US government to use the threat of withholding military aid as a way to compel President Al-Sisi to free detainees, prevent torture in prisons and stop the referendum on constitutional amendments. The problem with such an argument is that it is based on unfounded and unacceptable generalisations. President Al-Sisis supporters in Egypt have long insisted that organisations such as the New York Times and the human rights groups provide names, dates of arrest, legal status and other concrete evidence to corroborate their claims that more than 60,000 Egyptians have been jailed. The burden of proof, after all, is on the accuser. The accused are innocent until proven otherwise. Although Egypt, the victim of numerous slur campaigns of this sort, has reiterated these principles on numerous occasions, none of the agencies pressuring Trump to punish Egypt have furnished evidence to sustain their claims. Surely, it is only right for President Al-Sisi to ask his counterpart in Washington to pressure newspapers and other organisations to at least to check their facts before clamouring to punish Egypt. On the referendum on constitutional amendments it appears that the same newspapers and organisations have decided to exercise a political role beyond their legal or moral remit. Countries with political party plurality, periodic elections, elected legislatures and the like are, by definition, democratic. No foreign agency has the right to cite democratic pretexts in order to meddle in the national institutions of another state. The proposed amendments and the need for them at this time were debated at length in parliament. Opponents of the amendments aired their views in the press and on social media without impediment or harassment, with the sole exception of a handful of individuals who took advantage of the situation to commit crimes such as slander and incitement to violence. But rights organisations have repeatedly attempted to confuse the issues by suggesting that the arrest of such individuals had to do with their opposition to the amendments. What they did not do was to attempt to answer the very logical question as to why thousands of others, who expressed the same if not more radical opinions, were not arrested. The constitutional amendments are a domestic concern and should not be exploited to impose international political agendas. They are necessary in the framework of Egypts domestic stability needs. Terrorist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and their jihadist and anarchistic allies, continue to pose a grave risk to the security of Egypt and the entire Middle East. To ignore such dangers on the pretext of enabling democratic transformation is to play with the fate of the peoples of this region, rehashing slogans that have been used many times in the past and which have invariably produced catastrophic results. It is enough, here, to point to how the US and other Western countries relied on the uncorroborated reports of human rights organisations to encourage the Islamist movements involved in the Arab Spring revolutions. Among the consequences were the destabilisation of Yemen, Syria and Libya, millions of displaced people and refugees, and the death of more than a million in less than eight years. Demands for human rights caused far greater human rights violations than those perpetrated by the purportedly dictatorial regimes. The lesson to be learned here is that stability is the greatest bulwark against human rights violations. As for the goal to eliminate human rights abuses, that is best achieved by promoting development which can never happen in the absence of stability. Stability in Egypt is not just necessary to improve domestic circumstances, it is essential to ensure control over the pernicious interplays that jeopardise the interests of the region. Only then will it be possible to drive back Iran, restrain Turkey and curtail the Russian role. Moreover, in view of the situations in Libya, Algeria and Sudan, it is essential to bolster Egypt and safeguard its stability as a precaution against further possible deterioration in countries which could propel the whole region towards chaos. An important aspect of this vision has to do with the US plan to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict what has been dubbed the Deal of the Century. Although it is premature to speak of how Egypt will respond to it since the details have not yet been divulged, it should be borne in mind that sustaining Egyptian stability and strengthening its regional role will not be achieved by pressuring it to take a stand that will undermine its image and influence on this issue. President Trump must realise that Egypt can only support a peace project that meets the greater portion of Palestinian aspirations. In taking his decisions regarding Jerusalem, UNRWA funding and the Golan Heights, President Trump overused the stick against the Palestinians and the Arabs. Now is the time to use the carrot in order to entice the Palestinians into accepting a project that meets the minimum level of their hopes and offers the promise of large influxes of aid and US and regional protection for the Palestinian resolve to end the conflict. If the Palestinians accept such a solution, Egypt can play constructive role. * A version of this article appears in print in the 7 April, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Facing Reality Search Keywords: Short link: South Africa: Digital inclusion imperative for 4IR South Africa cannot deliver effectively in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) if theres no digital inclusion, says Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams. Are our people able to communicate, is it affordable, are the services accessible, and are they available to our people because they are not meant for the elite, Ndabeni-Abrahams said. The Minister, who was addressing the media launch for the Digital Economy Summit, also presented the 4IRSA partnership on Thursday in Johannesburg. 4IRSA is a partnership between Telkom and the Universities of Witwatersrand, Fort Hare and Johannesburg. The partnership seeks to stimulate and facilitate an inclusive national dialogue to shape a coherent national response to the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) in South Africa. Ndabeni-Abrahams emphasized the need to put people at the centre of the 4IR conversation. As we unpack the critical components of 4IR, it is important that people are placed at the centre of the conversation. As government, this is woven into all our 4IR interventions and as such, we have been deliberate in seeking collaborative efforts that build a capable 4IR army. In the same breadth, we must ensure that we create and own solutions that respond to our unique requirements as a country, she said. The Minister said it is important that all sectors find expression in the 4IR conversation. The partnership between Telkom and the Universities of Witwatersrand, Fort Hare and Johannesburg, is also aimed at complementing and supporting other national activities relating to 4IR, most notably the Presidential Commission on 4IR. The task of the commission, which will be chaired by the President, is to identify relevant policies, strategies and action plans that will position South Africa as a competitive global player. The Minister said, in addition to the Presidential Commission on 4IR, work streams will be established to focus on skills and jobs for the future. We want to look at the challenges and the potential threats in the jobs industry for the future. We also require the expertise of the labour unions, policy makers and the industry players who must make sure that there are jobs. We require people who are going to look at the social impact of the 4IR the commission is there to provide strategic leadership that must be given to the country, she said. She said it was important to build capacity for the 4IR by making sure that the workforce is ready for the revolution. Wits Vice-Chancellor Adam Habib said South Africa needs to work across sectors to develop the technology required for the country to leapfrog across eons of poverty, unemployment and inequality. And in doing so create a new world order that prioritises humanity before profits and power. Whilst it is important to address the challenges of our past, it is equally important that we prepare for a collective and common digital and technological future so that we can determine how it will impact us as a society, Habib said. The University of Johannesburg and Fort Hare is focusing a lot of research attention on 4IR, with a number of different projects and courses. Telkom Group CEO Sipho Maseko said the 4IRSA partnership may be the most important collaboration between the government, public institutions and the private sector in South Africa. Its potential impacts are transformative both economically and politically. Telkom is passionate about addressing todays challenges to ensure tomorrows prosperity, he said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. RTHK: Moon, Trump meet after Hanoi failure South Korean President Moon Jae-in meets US leader Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to try to find a path forward from the debris of a failed nuclear summit between the US president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Both Trump and Moon are heavily invested in bringing North Korea out of the cold but the unsuccessful summit in Vietnam at the end of February was a setback for the two allies that has yet to be resolved. Trump will give Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook the red carpet treatment at the White House before talks in the Oval Office. Although trade and the role of the huge US troop presence in South Korea are hot topics, North Korea dominates. "The two leaders will have in-depth talks ... to coordinate their stance on setting up a peace regime on the Korean peninsula through complete denuclearisation," Yoon Do-han, the senior South Korean presidential press secretary said ahead of the visit. Trump has emerged as an unlikely peacemaker in the Korean peninsula, reversing his initially bellicose approach with a determined effort to put Washington and Pyongyang on a historic path to reconciliation. But if an initial meeting between Trump and Kim in Singapore last year broke the ice, the follow up in Hanoi ended with no progress on US demands for North Korea to start dismantling its nuclear weapons program or North Korea's desire to see an easing of international sanctions. The two leaders cut their talks short, skipping a scheduled final lunch and the expected issuing of a joint statement. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The picture shows an Indian special operations soldier. By Wang Quan According to a report from Indias Defense News, Nirmala Sitharaman, Indias Defense Minister, recently approved a quantity procurement program of special operation equipment from the United States, in order to strengthen the operational capabilities of Indian Special Operations Forces. Flashy but useless white-elephant armed forces Indias Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as its internal affairs departments, all of them have their respective special forces, totaling tens of thousands of active personnel. However, due to the deficiency of the authorities and the lack of combat tactical training, as well as the power decentralization, equipment shortage and weak ability in information acquisition, the Indian Special Forces are widely considered as white-elephant armed forces, that is, a troop of enormous size, but flashy and useless. The report pointed out that the performance of the Indian Special Forces in the India-Pakistan conflict occurred in February 2019 has further confirmed the above assertion. Quoting experts opinion, The Economic Times of India said that the Indian special forces do not live up to the reputation, since there is a clear gap when being compared with the average level of the worlds Special Forces. In fact, the White Elephant label has been attached to the Indian Special Forces for 11 years. In November 2008, a group of militants sneaked into Mumbai, Indias most populous city, to launch a terrorist attack. It took 9 long hours for Indias National Security Guard (NSG) (aka, Black Cat) to arrive finally and made a surprising damage rate of 2:20, with 2 militants killed and 20 casualties on the Indian part. This result of the incident has provoked an international outcry about the operational disabilities of Indian Special Forces. Hard to break the institutional barriers In order to shrug off the white elephant label, the Indian Special Forces have been lavishing money on fancy equipment. In 2018, the Indian Ministry of Defense issued several procurement contracts for weapons and equipment to enhance the operational capabilities of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force special operations forces. Not long ago, India approved a plan to purchase special equipment from the United States, including assault rifles, ammunition and parachutes, which will cost 100 billion rupees (about 9.8 billion RMB). Based on the amount of purchases, military experts speculated that the final amount of weapons and equipment purchased from the US would exceed these listed above, and high-tech information systems and night vision and detection systems may also be included in the deal. In addition, another major procurement would be the delivery vehicles used to transport Indian Special Forces personnel and their equipment. India Today reported that a senior officer from the Indian Special Forces had complained about the poor maneuver ability of the troop, and they still rely on moving on foot to get to the enemy territory. However, the closest distance to enemy is about 100 to 150 kilometers away and its beyond our reach, he added. As for the large procurement contracts placed by the Indian part, some analysts pointed out that despite the sophisticated weapons and equipment they have purchased, without reforming its institutional system, the Indian Special Forces could only play a role of senior infantry. An officer from the Indian Special Forces said in an interview with India Today that the Indian Special Forces previously under the control of the combat command at the Military Command level have been dispatched to units at the corps or regiment level, in order to perform some difficult infantry missions, instead of focusing on strategic or tactical-objective nature missions. In addition, the Indian Special Forces have also faced many issues in terms of institutional system, the most prominent of which is the severe segmentation undermining its joint operational capabilities. And the lack of a unified command and control system makes it difficult to comprehensively acquire and process information, limiting their ability to perform strategic tasks. India Today reported that in order to change the current situation, the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force have applied to the Ministry of National Defense to establish a unified special operational command. They are still waiting for a response. (The original article was published on Chinas Defense Newspaper, an official newspaper belongs to the Chinese PLA News Media Center, on April 8, 2019. It was edited and translated into English by China Military Online) A People's Liberation Army (PLA) helicopter fires two rockets during live-fire drills on April 18 2018 in the Taiwan Straits. The drills were said to send a warning to "Taiwan secessionist groups" and the US. Photo: Xinhua The influence of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) is gradually weakening and will become a burden for the US as the Taiwan question will be solved eventually, Chinese mainland analysts said on Wednesday, after the US and the leader of the Taiwan region called for strengthening ties over the 40th anniversary of the TRA. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Negotiations David Meale arrived in Taiwan Tuesday, and is scheduled to attend the anniversary at the American Institute in Taiwan's (AIT) new complex on April 15, the Taiwan-based Central News Agency reported. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a routine press conference on Wednesday that China opposes official contact of any form between the US and Taiwan, and the visit by a US official is a severe violation of the one-China principle and US obligations under the three joint communiques the US signed with China. "We urge the US not to make wrong practices," Lu said. In a video teleconferencing speech given to US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday, Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen urged the US to make it clear that protecting the security of Taiwan is vital to "the defense of democracy." Mainland experts warned that the US should realize the TRA will become a serious burden to Washington when the mainland has no choice but to solve the Taiwan question militarily or the day China's reunification is realized. China's reunification is certain, which is only a matter of time, and if the US strictly follows the Act, then the Act could draw the US into unnecessary conflicts with China when the reunification is realized or during the process of reunification, so weakening the Act's influence is a wise choice for the US, said analysts. The TRA is meant to maintain US economic and trade interests with the island after the two sides ended their diplomatic ties. However, the TRA doesn't include definite promise to Taiwan or clear obligation of the US should military clash erupts between mainland and the island, despite allowing the US to sell defensive weapons to the island. The TRA has offered an alleged domestic legal basis for the US to interfere in cross-Straits affairs, analysts noted. When the US follows the TRA, it will unavoidably challenge the bottom line of China by breaking the three joint communiques and weaken the one-China principle. From a practical point of view, the US tends to implement a "two China" policy in accordance with the TRA, Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for US Studies at Fudan University, said. Weakening influence Chinese analysts said that after 40 years, the influence of the TRA has been gradually weakened as China has the capability to exert its influence on regional affairs and cross-Straits situation doesn't depend on what the US says . Xin believes the US will continue to abide by the TRA, including its promise to the island, such as selling arms to the island, and the US will also continue to remain ambiguous on the cross-Straits question. But Jin Yi, an expert at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the role of the TRA will be gradually weakened and the US will restrain itself on the Taiwan question. "In the end it is only a domestic law. Whether it will continue to exert influence on the cross-Straits situation depends on the US' strength." China on Wednesday confirmed that two People's Liberation Army (PLA) fighter jets crossed the "middle line" of the Taiwan Straits on March 31, and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang said that it is a normal arrangement within the PLA's annual training program. Ma said that China's sovereignty and territorial integrity have never been divided and no division is allowed, and safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity is PLA's sacred duty as well as the fundamental interests of compatriots on both sides of the Straits. China's Anti-Secession Law, adopted in 2005, has clearly stipulated that the state shall employee "non-peaceful means and other necessary measures" to protect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The wording is much more determined than the TRA's lines about protecting Taiwan. "In the event Taiwan secessionist forces should act under any name or by any means to cause the fact of Taiwan's secession from China, or that major incidents entailing Taiwan's secession from China should occur, or that possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted," according to Article 8 of the Anti-Secession Law. If the Chinese mainland decides to solve the Taiwan question militarily, whether the US will respond is unknown, Xin said. "Taiwan secessionists should be clear that they won't get an absolute security guarantee from the US under this circumstance, but might be bankrupted from purchasing expensive but useless US weapons, and this would only benefit arms dealers." The US reportedly gave its tacit approval to Taiwan's request to buy more than 60 US-made F-16V fighter jets. But Time magazine reported on Monday that the Trump administration has put on hold the F-16V sale until it reaches a trade deal with China. UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Wednesday called for a political solution to the Venezuela crisis and asked for the lifting of unilateral sanctions against the country. "China calls on the Venezuelan government and opposition to seek a political solution through dialogue and consultations within the constitutional and legal framework," Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council. China supports the Venezuelan government's efforts to safeguard the sovereignty, independence and stability of the country and holds that Venezuelan affairs should be handled independently by the Venezuelan people themselves, said Ma. China's position on the Security Council's involvement in the Venezuela issue has been consistent and clear, he said. "Our point of departure has always been to uphold the spirit of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations, promote a peaceful settlement of the Venezuela issue and maintain long-term peace and development in Latin America." "China opposes the interference in Venezuela's internal affairs by external forces, opposes military intervention in Venezuela and opposes the use of the so-called humanitarian issue to achieve political aims," said Ma. He called on relevant countries to lift unilateral sanctions against Venezuela. History has proven repeatedly that unilateral sanctions will only further complicate situations and affect people's everyday life. It will not help resolve problems, nor will it bring peace to a country, he said. "On the one hand, we hear a lot of talk about care for the well-being of Venezuelans. On the other hand, we are seeing increasingly tighter sanctions on the country. They are contradictory and the motive is dubious," said Ma. "(We) hope that relevant countries will promptly lift unilateral sanctions against Venezuela, create normal conditions for its economic and social development, and lend help and support to the country in accordance with the basic principles of UN humanitarian assistance." He asked the international community to contribute positively to Venezuela's peace, stability and development. The peace and stability of Venezuela are in the fundamental interests of the country and its people, and serve the common interests of all parties, Ma said. "We hope the international community will do things that are truly conducive to the stability, economic development, and improved livelihood in Venezuela." Under the condition of respect for the sovereignty of Venezuela, the international community should provide constructive assistance to the country and promote a smooth settlement of relevant issues as soon as possible, he said. The Chinese ambassador said China will continue its cooperation with Venezuela on the basis of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, and common development. To help Venezuelan people overcome temporary difficulties, China has decided to provide emergency supplies for livelihood to Venezuela, said Ma. Relevant supplies are on their way to Venezuela in batches. On March 29, the first batch of medicines and medical supplies were delivered to the Venezuelan government, he said. China's assistance to Venezuela is in keeping with its long-held principles for foreign aid. It is intended to help Venezuelan people overcome negative impacts caused by external interferences and sanctions with no political conditions attached, said the Chinese ambassador. The US "hopes to reach agreement for another aircraft carrier visit to Vietnam" in 2019, according to Reuters earlier this month. Randall Schriver, US assistant secretary of defense for the Indo-Pacific security affairs, said, "We had our first aircraft carrier visit to Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War and we very much hope we can reach agreement with our colleagues in Vietnam for a second aircraft carrier visit this year." The enhanced military cooperation between Washington and Hanoi is closely related to the South China Sea issue. With the turnaround in the China-Philippines ties, Vietnam has become an important anchor for the US to intervene in the South China Sea, since Hanoi, which has the most maritime claims on the waters, is quite stubborn over its demand. Washington wants to intervene in the South China Sea row through cooperation with regional countries. Against this backdrop, Vietnam is an ideal partner for the US. Yet the US aircraft carrier's visit has more political symbolism than practical significance. The visit will not substantially enhance military cooperation or political trust between Washington and Hanoi. Up to now, Vietnam's most important military partner has been Russia, from which Vietnam purchased bulk of its weapons. However, the US will not easily let go of Vietnam. In the process of comprehensively promoting the Indo-Pacific strategy, the US emphasizes the so-called freedom of navigation and rules-based regional order. Meanwhile, it tends to strengthen its alliance with nations such as Japan and Australia while seeking partnership with Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam and Singapore. By stepping up military interaction with Vietnam, the US may make the Indo-Pacific strategy more popular in the region. Nevertheless, US aircraft carrier's visit to Vietnam will not practically affect the security of the South China Sea as it is difficult for both countries to carry out true military cooperation any time soon. But such a visit will have negative diplomatic influence on China in the short run. At present, China and ASEAN are negotiating the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea and both sides still disagree on issues such as the COC having binding force. The US carrier may roil the waters of the South China Sea and instigate ASEAN members to antagonize China. This will complicate COC negotiations, heightening tensions in the waters. Given Vietnam's ideological conflict with the US and its disputes over sovereignty with China, Hanoi will not completely tilt toward either Washington or Beijing. Maintaining a balance among great powers is in line with Vietnam's interests. But when it comes to economic collaboration, the US and Vietnam may make breakthroughs. Vietnam was keen to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership; it needs the US big market. Vietnam is not willing to rely totally on China for investment. This country seeks to diversify its investment sources by attracting capital from the US, Japan and South Korea, which goes with Vietnam's long-term interest. As a great power, China should confidently eye the development of US-Vietnam ties. Even when bilateral relations have been choppy over the South China Sea disputes, long-term stable ties between China and Vietnam have ensured multichannel communication. Beijing has to be aware of ASEAN's ambivalence toward their relations with China. One the one hand, they welcome the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), hoping to achieve win-win economic cooperation with China. On the other, they lack trust in China on security issues. China should separate economic and security subjects. While shelving disputes and managing maritime crises, China should continue to promote regional cooperation initiative such as BRI. This will be a priority for China's neighborhood diplomacy in the future. The author is Zhang Jie, a research fellow with the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. A Chinese peacekeeping medical worker offers humanitarian assistance to a local teenager. By Zhang Peng and Liu Wei BEIRUT, April 11 (ChinaMil) -- The medical contingent of the 17th Chinese peacekeeping force to Lebanon implemented emergency treatment for a Syrian refugee on April 9, local time, Beirut, capital of Lebanon. Bitten by a wolf, the refugee suffered almost complete avulsion injury. He went to the Chinese hospital in Lebanon for help, because Chinese peacekeeping medical personnel enjoyed a good reputation of high medical standards and excellent service attitude locally. The Chinese medical personnel skillfully dressed the wounds and gave him a rabies vaccine, for which the patient expressed heartfelt thanks. The medical contingent is stationed at the Lebanon-Israel border, where people live in a rough harsh environment and poor medical conditions, with multiple refugee camps scattering around. Most residents living there are impoverished. Since its deployment in May 2018, the medical contingent of the 17th Chinese peacekeeping force to Lebanon has gone deep into local villages and schools to offer physical examinations, diagnosis and treatment services to the people, teachers and students living in the vicinity. They have provided humanitarian assistance for 419 persons, donated nearly 50,000-yuanworth of relief supplies, including medicine, first-aid kits, stationery, etc. Lebanon News Agency has published many reports to express the gratitude of the fortunate local people to have Chinese military personnel taking care of their health. Kumho Asiana chairman Park Sam-koo fell on his sword on Thursday over the conglomerate's deteriorating finances and accounting irregularities. The abrupt announcement came a day before the conglomerate holds its annual shareholders' meeting and just a day after rival Korean Air's shareholders ousted chairman Cho Yang-ho. Kumho Asiana is still Korea's 25th-largest conglomerate with assets totaling W12 trillion and 26 subsidiaries (US$1=W1,138). The immediate trigger for Park's resignation was the discovery of accounting regularities in a recent audit. "I am taking responsibility for controversy over audit results and decided to step down from my position," Park told reporters. State-run Korea Development Bank, Kumho's major creditor, in a statement the same day said the conglomerate will submit a new plan to get back on its feet. In the audit, Asiana was caught failing to submit certain financial information to cover up its money troubles. The Korea Exchange placed the company on monitoring status and suspended trading of its shares on March 22 and 25. It resumed on Tuesday, but the revelations sent the share price plunging more than 10 percent. Investors were concerned that Asiana would face creditor demands to redeem massive amounts of debt after its credit rating was slashed. A financial regulator said, "KDB sent a message to investors that Kumho Asiana will come up with new plans to improve its finances and Asiana Airlines is making steady profits, so there should be no problems." Asiana will be audited by KDB for now, while Kumho will search for a new chief soon. European Union and China leaders say they intend to enter into what they called an "ambitious" comprehensive investment agreement by 2020. "We need to speed up negotiations on the China-Europe investment agreement, with a view of making decisive progress by the end of the current year so that we can conclude before the end of next year a high-quality China-Europe agreement," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Tuesday at a news conference in Brussels. Li promised that European companies would enjoy equal treatment, adding that Beijing would no longer force companies to hand over technology in exchange for doing business in China. Aside from the timeline to reach a deal by next year, the promises Beijing made to the EU were similar to those it has made with the United States in trade negotiations. The announcement at this week's annual summit of EU and China leaders comes amid uncertainty over trade negotiations between the United States and China and threats by President Donald Trump of more tariffs against the European Union. Some saw the timing of the resurgence of tensions between the EU and the United States and the deal between Brussels and Beijing as a sign that Europe was gaining an upper hand. On Tuesday, President Trump threatened to impose tariffs worth $11 billion on European products. The European Union has not taken the same approach as the Trump administration slapping tariffs on Beijing in an effort to squeeze market access concessions but it shares the same concerns. But against the backdrop of U.S./China trade negotiations and tensions, the EU has been hardening its position as well. Ahead of the summit it sent signals that it was determined to see real progress in trade relations with China. French President Emmanuel Macron called for an "end to naivety" about Chinese power. Negotiations between the European Union and China were not easy, and it took the two sides 10-days to finally reach an agreement on a summit communique and the path forward. The floor leaders of Korea's five main political parties attended an event in Shanghai on Wednesday celebrating the 100th anniversary of the government-in-exile. In a press conference at Gimpo International Airport before they flew out, they vowed to look back at the past century and take this occasion to come together to create a better country for the next 100 years. On Thursday evening, another centennial event will take place in Seoul as well. Youth unemployment has soared to over 25 percent if those who work part-time or are economically inactive to prepare for public service exams are included. The figure flies in the face of government claims to have improved the job market. According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, a total of 26.8 million people were employed as of March, a nominal increase of 250,000 from a year ago and up more than 200,000 on-year for the second month running. TV personality Robert Holley, also known as his Korean name Ha Il, was released from custody on Wednesday after a court refused to issue an arrest warrant. The Suwon District Court said Holley has admitted the charges and the evidence has already been collected so there is no risk that he could tamper with it. It also took into account that he has expressed remorse and has no criminal record. Leaving a remand prison in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Holley told reporters, "I'm sorry" and left in a car that was waiting for him. Holley had already been investigated in January last year on a tip-off from a 34-year-old man who was arrested on charges of drug use. The man claimed that he and Holley were in a homosexual relationship and injected meth together at Holley's house. But when the California native and lapsed Mormon turned up for questioning, he had shaved his hair and waxed his body to prevent police from collecting hair samples and had to be let go. RTHK: Assange guily of bail breach, faces US charges A London court on Thursday found WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange guilty of breaching his bail conditions in 2012 and remanded him into custody pending sentencing. Assange faces up to 12 months in prison on the charge. He will face another court hearing on May 2 on a US request for his extradition for alleged computer hacking. Earlier, the US Justice Department said Assange was arrested in London on a US warrant charging him over his alleged role in a massive leak of military and diplomatic documents in 2010. Assange faces up to five years in jail on a federal charge of "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified US government computer," according to a statement. The indictment alleges Assange conspired in March 2010 with Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, to crack a password stored on Department of Defense computers. Though it was unclear if the password was ever broken, the Justice Department said the effort was part of Assange's role in "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States." Assange's US lawyer Barry Pollack said that his arrest constitutes "an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information." (AFP) This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The Seoul Metropolitan Government wants to help the North Korean capital of Pyongyang improve the water quality of the Taedong River that runs through it. The city on Wednesday said it has launched a committee that will help with the task. The first step is to modernize Pyongyang's water supply and drainage system. "It's a humanitarian project to ensure access to clean drinking water, which is at the core of the UN's sustainable development goals," a city official said. The committee consists of eight civilian experts and four city officials. The city has earmarked W1 billion for the project from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund (US$1=W1,140). A preliminary survey and consultation are planned for this year. Some W210 million will be spent on equipment to check water quality and detect leaks. But the equipment cannot be delivered to Pyongyang under current UN sanctions, so Seoul needs to apply for an exemption through the Unification Ministry, just as South Korea did for a survey of inter-Korean railways last year. Critics said this is no time for the city government to spend money and time helping Pyongyang when its own water and sewage pipes are in dire need of an overhaul. Some 71.1 percent of the city's sewage and drainage pipes are more than 20 years old, according to the city government, and some 32.1 percent were laid 50 years or more ago. The project seems at any rate rather immature. The city government claimed it will serve as a role model for other local governments' cooperation with the North, but the relevant laws do not recognize local governments as parties to exchange and cooperation with the North. And when a member of the committee asked who its North Korean counterpart will be, committee chief Hwang Bang-yeol admitted, "We haven't gotten that far yet. We're thinking of using the Inter-Korean Liaison Office as a communication channel." It is not even clear whether North Korea will respond. No work has been done at the liaison office since Pyongyang unilaterally pulled out all staff last month after the collapse of the U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi, though a handful have since returned. Nor is the exemption likely to be granted. "Equipment needed to improve water quality is capable of causing chemical reactions and can easily be diverted to military purposes," said Prof. Nam Sung-wook of Korea University. "It seems that the city is just randomly throwing out ideas because relations with North Korea are deteriorating." Three of the eight countries to which Washington granted waivers to import Iranian oil have now cut their shipments from Iran to zero, a U.S. special representative said on Tuesday. While the United States has set a target of driving Iranian oil exports to zero, it granted temporary import waivers to China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey and Korea. "In November, we granted eight oil waivers to avoid a spike in the price of oil. I can confirm today three of those importers are now at zero," Brian Hook, the envoy on Iran, told reporters. Hook did not identify the three countries. "There are better market conditions for us to accelerate our path to zero. We are not looking to grant any waivers or exceptions to our sanctions regime," Hook said. Expos zero carbon technology upgraded and applied By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2019-04-10 19:33 Utilizing Huangpu River water as a cooling and heating source and generating electricity from kitchen waste... these were the low-carbon technologies utilized by the carbon-neutral buildings contributed by London to the Shanghai World Expo. When the expo closed its curtain, Chen Shuo, the director of the London Pavilion, set up his own company ZEROco2 to further study zero-carbon technology. Developing extra strong polymer composite materials that can be molded at a normal temperature and pressure has been one part of the research. This is considered important because huge amounts of energy are required to produce steel, resulting in very high CO2 emissions. Development was not smooth at first but an accidental parameter error led to the teams success. After evenly spreading the high-strength fiber material on the surface of a fiber cloth, the composite material formed can take shape within 40 minutes under the influence of the curing agent,. While the specific strength of the composite is 25 times that of steel, the new materials weight is only 4% of the latter, and is radiation resistant. Named Lunar Fiber by the team, the material has now been applied to the construction of several ball-shaped buildings in vacation villages in cities like Hangzhou, Ningbo and Anji. Besides the buildings themselves, facilities in these villages are also environmentally friendly -- the solar energy makes them electrically self-efficient and an anaerobic fermentation cluster breaks down the waste into organic fertilizer for plants. Moreover, the Lunar Fiber is expected to be used on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) ships in the future, revolutionizing the design of LNG carriers. Also in the aerospace field, the "high-strength, radiation-proof, and air-tight" nature of the "Lunar Fiber", combined with the rapid prototyping technology, will make it possible for humans to quickly build houses on the moon. With the current EPA administration seen as unlikely to issue a finding of endangerment against the tetraethyl lead used in aviation fuel, its eventual demise may have to come at the hands of consumers. That was one message from a 100LL briefing held at Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany, this week. Conducted by Shells Tim Shea and Michael Kraft of Lycoming, the briefing covered the history of the TEL issue and, more recently, delays caused first by the temporary suspension of the FAAs Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative and more recently by the government shutdown earlier this year. Shea said because of that delay, testing has only just resumed on a limited basis. The PAFI process stalled last year when it was revealed that inconsistencies in the candidate fuels would make a drop-in replacement for 100LL unlikely. The industry has been seeking an unleaded replacement for 100LL since the mid-1980s, but the effort took on urgency about 10 years ago when it appeared that the FAA would act to ban lead. But that action is seen as unlikely now because of the environmental policies of the current administration. Lycomings Kraft said the maintenance benefits of unleaded fuelless spark plug fouling, cleaner oil and less corrosionwill have to be sold to owners as a plus, thus driving market demand rather than relying on regulatory pressure to force the change. Shea said now that PAFI has resumed testing on two candidate fuels, its unlikely that a qualified fuel will emerge before the end of 2020. Shea was noncommittal on what a replacement fuel might cost, but Shells current estimates suggest it will be comparable to 100LL. The Chinese owners of western aviation infrastructureCirrus, Continental, Mooney, Diamondgenerally remain low key, as in invisible. So, it was unusual yesterday when Diamonds Austria CEO, Liquin (Frank) Zhang, conducted the companys press conference at Aero. He gave a brisk overview of Diamonds parent, Wanfeng Auto Holding, a $30 billion closely held Chinese conglomerate. Confident and concise, he rattled off all the numbers and explained how Diamond fit into the larger picture of a company that made its chops in the automotive and heavy industrial manufacturing sectors. Still, my friend Ed Hicks, editor of the U.K.s Flyer magazine, and I were lamenting the absence of Diamonds former owner, the irrepressible and unpredictable Christian Dries. He sold the company to Wanfeng in 2017. For shock value alone, Dries was unmatched and we always went into a press conference expecting the unexpected. Perhaps a submarine-launched diesel twin or a fully autonomous electric tilt rotor or well, we just never knew. But kudos to Diamond for staying the course and reviving the DA50, Diamonds large single-engine project. And the DA50 is big. Stand next to it in the hall, and its about the size and feel of a Bonanza A36. I wouldnt be surprised if the airplane has more cabin volume. For power, Diamond is using Continentals new CD-300, another diesel engine adapted from the automotive world. This time its a V-6, with electronic fuel injection, geared of course, and four valves per cylinder. Diamond has been here before. Recall that it stunned the Berlin airshow in 2002 with the appearance of the DA42 aimed at a twin market that was all but moribund and it violated a cardinal principle in aviation: Never marry an untried engine to a new airframe. When the Thielert diesel engines developed teething pains, Diamond paid the price in both money and lost prestige. It recovered and true to form, Dries launched his own engine company, Austro, in 2006. Is it repeating the mistake, eschewing some good engine choices for this class of airplanethe Continental TSIO-550, for example, or Lycomings IE2 engine? If Dries were around, hed deflect such fears and forge ahead relentlessly, dismissing the whiny scribes for even mentioning it. I suspect Wanfeng will do the same. Next question. And that would be does the world need such an airplane? Whether it does or doesnt, my experience with Diamond makes some things predictable. The DA50 will probably sell for about the $1 million mark, it will cruise at something like 215 knots at altitude and will carry four people and a bunch of baggage, or five or six on shorter trips. The diesel will give it a 15 percent advantage in fuel burn and the company will reliably sell between 40 and 60 a year, worldwide. If you dont believe that, just extrapolate the success of the $1.3 million DA62 twin, of which Diamond has sold more than 120, a few more than I expected. A key question for me is what the CD-300s initial TBO will be and how would-be buyers will react to it. Look for a video tour of the airplane in our unfolding Aero coverage. Flight Design Another revival is Flight Design, a German company with manufacturing in Ukraine that has achieved some success with the CTLS light sport. As I reported, theyre rejiggering that product a little and introducing a new four-place model called the F4. At the press conference, I initially thought Flight Design has abandoned the C4 it originally announced in 2011, but the companys Matthias Betsch said no, that airplane remains on a low simmer. The F4 is really a stretched version of the CTLS airframe. When Rotax announced the 135-HP 915iS, we speculated that it would ignite development in new airframes and here we are. The F4 will be certified under the revised CS23 standard sotheoreticallyit will be quicker, easier and cheaper to rush through the hurdles. Maybe. Both Flight Design and Diamond aspire to have these new airplanes certified by the 2020 timeframe, but injecting a dose of realism here, lets says 2021 or 2022. Although theyre at opposite ends of the size spectrum, these two airplanes have one thing in common: Theyre unusually well sorted out aerodynamically. The CTLS is one of the best flying LSAs on the market, with none of the feather-light control weight that plague many airplanes in this category. If the company carries that through to the F4, it will presumably have the same qualities. Diamond has been similarly adept at tweaking the handling, such that the DA-62 is an absolute thrill to fly. Well see if they do the same with the DA50. Note to Readers:No, its not something you said. Because of persistent denial of service attacks against AVweb, were moving the site to another platform. The commenting section will be unavailable for a time. We apologize for the inconvenience, but the site will be better for it in a week or two. In the meantime, if you have a comment,emailus and well append it to the blog. . "" - , 1/16- . "" 1:0, . , . 76- , ... Confluence Pharmaceuticals receives $200K investment from IU fund BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Philanthropic Venture Fund, which invests in IU-related ventures, has invested $200,000 in Confluence Pharmaceuticals LLC. Confluence Pharmaceuticals is a Carmel, Indiana-based company that develops novel, clinically discovered, therapeutic treatments for core social and communication impairments related to fragile X syndrome and autism spectrum disorder. Confluence Pharmaceuticals CEO Steve Johns said the company is targeting its lead asset, a product for the treatment of fragile X syndrome to improve important functionality including communication, social interaction and self-care. "Today, no medication exists to treat these core impairments," Johns said. "Early pilot studies have demonstrated the potential of our product to improve focus, communication, social withdrawal and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder." Confluence Pharmaceuticals will use the investment to accelerate clinical development and regulatory activities. What they're saying Confluence Pharmaceuticals licenses intellectual property developed at Indiana University through the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office. "We are delighted to have Indiana University broaden its relationship with us and become an investor as we enter the next stage of our development," Johns said. "We look forward to continuing our collaborative relationship and utilizing the supportive resources IU brings to the development of this much-needed therapy." The IU Philanthropic Venture Fund was launched in February 2018. Teri Willey is the fund manager and executive director of the IU Research and Technology Corp. "We, too, are delighted to be supporting the team at Confluence in their efforts to bring this critical therapy to patients, and to have Confluence as our 10th investment since launching the fund a few months ago," Willey said. About Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. IURTC catalyzes entrepreneurial activities at Indiana University and provides support for IU innovation-based startup companies. It advises and connects IU startups to capital and commercialization partners, industry mentors, and leadership talent. It also develops appropriate programming and startup space to accelerate company growth. About Indiana University Philanthropic Venture Fund The IU Philanthropic Venture Fund is an Indiana University-affiliated venture fund launched in 2018 through the vision and generosity of IU alumni and friends supporting IU discoveries best developed through a new venture. The fund is managed by IURTC staff who work with the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office, alumni, faculty, and staff, as well as the venture and economic development communities, to identify and develop IU-related opportunities for investment. ### This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Near-atomic map of parathyroid hormone complex points toward new therapies for osteoporosis GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (April 11, 2019) -- An international team of scientists has mapped a molecular complex that could aid in the development of better medications with fewer side effects for osteoporosis and cancer. The near-atomic resolution images depict parathyroid hormone receptor-1 (PTH1R), a molecule that conveys signals to and from cells, interacting with two key messengers -- a molecule that mimics parathyroid hormone, one of the most important regulators of calcium levels in the body, and a stimulatory G protein, a molecule that mediates bone turnover. The findings, published today in Science, give researchers a better blueprint for designing drugs for osteoporosis and other conditions such as chachexia, which causes severe weakness and weight loss that can be fatal in cancer patients. Globally, more than 200 million people have osteoporosis and even more have low bone density. In the coming years, public health experts expect these numbers to rise, fueled in part by an aging population. They also fear an increase in osteoporosis-related fractures due to fewer people taking current medications out of concern over rare side effects. "The understanding of how all of these molecules fit together has been a missing piece of the puzzle since the discovery of parathyroid hormone 80 years ago," said H. Eric Xu, Ph.D., a professor at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) and co-corresponding author of the study. "It's a big step forward that we hope will one day help people around the world." PTH1R is a molecular communication conduit between cells and their environments that fosters development of the bones, skin and cartilage, and regulates levels of calcium in the blood. To do this, it interacts with molecular messengers such as the parathyroid hormone, which ensures the blood stream has the appropriate amount of calcium to maintain healthy function. However, too much parathyroid hormone can wreak havoc on the body, spiking the amount of calcium in the blood to dangerous levels, promoting the formation of kidney stones and leaching calcium from bones, which can cause devastating fractures. Too little bogs down metabolism, and contributes to fatigue, weight gain, depression and a host of other issues. Today's findings also provide insight into G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a family of signaling molecules to which PTH1R belongs. Taken together, GPCRs are targeted by nearly 30 percent of medications currently on the market. GPCRs are notoriously difficult to visualize using traditional X-ray crystallography methods; to date, only about 40 out of more than 800 total GPCRs have had their structures determined. To visualize today's structure, the team used a groundbreaking technique called cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which is capable of imaging molecules in unprecedented clarity and can more easily image molecules like GPCRs that are embedded in the cell membrane. ### Xu is co-corresponding author along with Yan Zhang of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Jean-Pierre Vilardaga of University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Ming-Wei Wang of Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) and Fudan University. Xu also holds an appointment at SIMM. Li-Hua Zhao of SIMM, Shanshan Ma of SIMM and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ieva Sutkeviciute of University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Dan-Dan Shen of Zhejiang University School of Medicine are co-first authors. Other authors include X. Edward Zhou, Parker de Waal and Karsten Melcher of VARI; Chen-Yao Li, Yanyong Kang, Dehua Yang, Antao Dai, Xiaoqing Cai and Yi Jiang of SIMM; Lisa J. Clark, Frederic G. Jean-Alphonse and Alex D. White of University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Jian Chen and Cong Li of Fudan University; and Tomoyuki Watanabe and Thomas J. Gardella of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. Research reported in this publication was supported by the Shanghai Science and Technology Development Fund award no. 18ZR1447800 (Zhao) and award no. 16ZR1407100 (Dai); the Young Innovator Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences award no. 2018325 (Zhao); SA-SBIS Scholarship Program (Zhao); Fudan-SIMM Joint Research Fund award no. FU-SIMM-20174003 (Zhao and Wang); the National Key R&D Program of China award no. 2018YFA0507000 (Wang); the National Natural Science Foundation of China award no. 31300245 (Zhao) and award nos. 81573479 and 81773792 (Yang); Ministry of Science and Technology award nos. 2012ZX09301001, 2012CB910403, 2013CB910600, XDB08020303 and 2013ZX09507001 (Xu); Novo-Nordisk-CAS Research Fund Foundation award no. NNCAS-2017-1-CC (Yang); Van Andel Institute (Xu); National Institute of General Medical Sciences award no. GM127710 (Xu) and T32GM008424 (White); National Institutes of Health award nos. R01DK102495, R01DK111427 and R01DK116780 (Vilardaga); and the Cotswold Foundation Fellowship Awards (Jean-Alphonse and White). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the granting organizations. ABOUT VAN ANDEL RESEARCH INSTITUTE Van Andel Institute (VAI) is an independent nonprofit biomedical research and science education organization committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations. Established by Jay and Betty Van Andel in 1996 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, VAI has grown into a premier research and educational institution that supports the work of more than 400 scientists, educators and staff. Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), VAI's research division, is dedicated to determining the epigenetic, genetic, molecular and cellular origins of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and translating those findings into effective therapies. The Institute's scientists work in onsite laboratories and participate in collaborative partnerships that span the globe. Learn more about Van Andel Research Institute at vai.org. This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Welcome to followthemedia.com The article or material you have chosen... Michael Hedges April 11, 2019 - Media outreach is considered essential for organizations seeking to manage their profile. While big companies mastered the art and science of message control decades ago. Governments have followed suit. Everybody has a message, it seems, critical to their purpose. Getting it in front of the right audience, in this digital age, can be a trick. Propaganda Seeks Its Own Level, Sometimes Spreading, Sometimes Sinking, Always StinkingMichael Hedges April 11, 2019 - Follow on Twitter Media outreach is considered essential for organizations seeking to manage their profile. While big companies mastered the art and science of message control decades ago. Governments have followed suit. Everybody has a message, it seems, critical to their purpose. Getting it in front of the right audience, in this digital age, can be a trick. ...is available for restricted access. You may access this specific article or material for 4 If you are an ftm Member, please go to the home page HERE and log in ftm Members can access all site material at no additional charge. You can JOIN ftm here The ftm newsletter available at no charge to all with registration To register click here. Researchers observe formation of a magnetar 6.5 billion light years away A University of Arkansas researcher is part of a team of astronomers who have identified an outburst of X-ray emission from a galaxy approximately 6.5 billion light years away, which is consistent with the merger of two neutron stars to form a magnetar -- a large neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field. Based on this observation, the researchers were able to calculate that mergers like this happen roughly 20 times per year in each region of a billion light years cubed. The research team, which includes Bret Lehmer, assistant professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, analyzed data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA's flagship X-ray telescope. The Chandra Deep Field-South survey includes more than 100 X-ray observations of a single area of the sky over a period of more than 16 years to collect information about galaxies throughout the universe. Lehmer, who has worked with the observatory for 15 years, collaborated with colleagues in China, Chile and the Netherlands, and at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Nevada. The study was published in Nature. A neutron star is a small, very dense star, averaging around 12 miles in diameter. Neutron stars are formed by the collapse of a star massive enough to produce a supernova, but not massive enough to become a black hole. When two neutron stars merge to become a magnetar, the resulting magnetic field is 10 trillion times stronger than a kitchen magnet. "Neutron stars are mysterious because the matter in them is so extremely dense and unlike anything reproduceable in a laboratory," Lehmer explained. "We do not yet have a good understanding of the physical state of the matter in neutron stars. Mergers involving neutron stars produce lots of unique data that gives us clues about the nature of neutron stars themselves and what happens when they collide." A previous discovery of two neutron stars merging, which used gravitational waves and gamma rays to make the observation, gave astronomers new insight into these objects. The research team used this new information to look for patterns in Chandra Observatory's X-ray data that were consistent with what they learned about merging neutron stars. The researchers found an outburst of X-rays in the data from the Chandra Deep Field-South survey. After ruling out other possible sources of the X-rays, they determined the signals came from the process of two neutron stars forming a magnetar. "A key piece of evidence is how the signal changed over time," said Lehmer. "It had a bright phase that plateaued and then dropped off in a very specific way. That is exactly what you'd expect from a magnetar that is rapidly losing its magnetic field through radiation." Similar calculations about the rate of neutron star mergers have been made based on the mergers detected by gravitational waves and gamma rays, strengthening the case for using X-ray data to find such exotic merger events in the universe. ### Contacts: Bret Lehmer, assistant professor of physics J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences 479-575-2506 lehmer@uark.edu Camilla Shumaker, director of science and research communications University Relations 479-575-7422, camillas@uark.edu This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. urbanbuzz/iStock(NEW YORK) -- A heated debate broke out on Twitter after the razor company, Gillette Venus, posted a photo of a plus-size, bikini-clad model at the beach. With the caption "Go out there and slay the day," the photo may seem like any other on its feed, most of them portraying women in minimal clothing showing off their freshly shaven skin. This particular photo, however, caused a tsunami of commenters to offer judgments on the model's health. Go out there and slay the day Glitter + Lazers pic.twitter.com/cIc0R3JfpR Gillette Venus (@GilletteVenus) April 3, 2019 The conflict comes from some users accusing Gillette of glamorizing obesity and others praising the company for promoting body positivity for all shapes and sizes. The photo's subject, Anna O'Brien, told ABC News' Good Morning America, in an interview that aired Thursday, "The purpose of taking that photo was just to capture a really joyful time in my life. I just wanted to remember how happy i felt. And that's all it was. It was just a really happy time in my life." O'Brien, who is a blogger and social media influencer, had posted the photo to her social media from a trip to Cuba and was contacted by Gillette asking if they could repost it. But the comments on Twitter were instantly divided. "It was hurtful when my obese mother died at 40 and couldnt see me graduate high school," one Twitter user wrote. "I find this ad extremely offensive." "This woman will die of heart disease before @potus completes his second term. I hope she's just as happy and carefree for her last 6 years if life. Everybody should live themselves, but lets not call it healthy," another person responded to the picture on Twitter. Many others came to the model's defense, fighting back at those who rushed to judgment. "Are you this person's doctor? Do you know if they are unhealthy? How? Where is her medical history in the tweet?" someone wrote. Another added: "Weight is not an indicator of health, and health is not an indicator of worth." "So where do we draw the line between body positivity and health issues?" someone else replied. "What people who aren't plus-sized don't know is this is our everyday existence," O'Brien told GMA. "I wanna show women that they can do whatever they want. "If you look at my image, its joyful. Its happy. Its inspired," she added. "Im living a great life. But for a lot of people, all they can see is fat." The company was forced to respond to the hullabaloo on Twitter, writing, "Venus is committed to representing beautiful women of all shapes, sizes, and skin types because ALL types of beautiful skin deserve to be shown. We love Anna because she lives out loud and loves her skin no matter how the 'rules' say she should display it." Venus is committed to representing beautiful women of all shapes, sizes, and skin types because ALL types of beautiful skin deserve to be shown. We love Anna because she lives out loud and loves her skin no matter how the rules say she should display it Gillette Venus (@GilletteVenus) April 4, 2019 O'Brien is no stranger to outrage. Her bikini snaps often draw attention, including photos last year from Las Vegas and Times Square. "At the end of the day, bodies are bodies," she said. "There are so many different types of them. And that's all this is about. ... Let's start showing them as they are." Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. South Africa: Rio Tinto approves R6.5bn investment into Richards Bay Minerals KwaZulu-Natal Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Sihle Zikalala has welcomed the R6.5 billion planned investment into Richards Bay Minerals (RBM). Rio Tinto, an international holding company for RBM, has approved the next stage in the development of RBM in South Africa, which will involve the construction of the Zulti South project that will sustain current capacity and also extend mine life. Zikalala said it was encouraging that more and more business organisations such as RBM continue to express their commitment to the growth of the provincial economy. The investment by RBM is a major vote of confidence in the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone (RBIDZ), one of our two special economic zones that have attracted R11.9 billion worth of investments since its inception a few years ago, Zikalala said. Zikalala added that the Dube Trade Port, another special economic zone, is also attracting investments in droves. The entitys first phase has been a huge success as it is now fully occupied by companies. It has been able to create more than 12 000 job opportunities. The second phase expansion is expected to pump R18 billion into the provincial coffers, the MEC said. According to Zikalala, companies are investing in KwaZulu-Natal because the government has created a conducive environment for businesses to flourish. He called on the people of KwaZulu-Natal to continue working with the provincial government in ensuring that we make investors feel that this is a province that they can come and settle. KwaZulu-Natal is initially targeting business prospects worth more than R200 billion, which was announced when the province launched its investment booklet recently. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-04-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. daizuoxin/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- A record number of women were elected to Congress last year, and two congresswomen are showing their power by shining a spotlight on critical womens issues. Freshman Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., and Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., have launched the Black Maternal Health Caucus to address the U.S. epidemic of black women dying in pregnancy-related deaths. As a Black mother and grandmother, Black maternal health is deeply personal," Adams told ABC News' Good Morning America in a statement. "My daughter had serious complications with her pregnancies, and if not for the quality prenatal care she received, the outcome could have been different. Unfortunately, countless Black women do not have access to quality pre- and post-natal care or culturally-competent services." The Caucus was launched with more than 50 founding members, including a number of Underwood's freshman female colleagues, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga. About 700 women die each year in the U.S. due to complications from pregnancy or giving birth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and some 65,000 women nearly die of pregnancy-related complications. While every other developed country has seen a decrease in maternal deaths in recent years, the U.S. has seen an increase, data shows. The numbers are even more staggering for African-American women. If you're an African-American your risks of dying in childbirth are three to four times higher than if you're white, Dr. Neel Shah, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and an OB-GYN at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told ABC News last year. It's not tied to income. It's not tied to education It's something about the lived experience of being African-American. Underwood told a story Tuesday at the launch of the caucus about a friend who was her classmate at Johns Hopkins University and later became a CDC epidemiologist. The woman, identified by Underwood as Dr. Shalon Irving, died in 2017 at age 36, three weeks after giving birth to her daughter. "Shalons story is heartbreaking. And its unacceptable how common it is in this country," Underwood said. A Brookings Institution study found that black mothers with advanced professional degrees, such as a master's degree or higher, have a higher chance of infant mortality compared to white women whose highest education level is the eighth grade. A maternal death is defined as the "death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy from any cause related to the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes," according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The most common complications that women die of during and after childbirth around the world include severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy, complications from delivery and an unsafe abortion, according to WHO. The goal of the Black Maternal health Caucus is to "raise awareness within Congress to establish Black maternal health as a national priority, and explore and advocate for effective, evidence-based, culturally-competent policies and best practices for health outcomes for Black mothers," according to a statement released by the offices of Rep. Underwood and Rep. Adams. "The status quo is intolerable, we must come together to reverse current trends and achieve optimal birth outcomes for all families," Underwood said in a statement. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. As Airbnb fends off crackdown efforts by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council, two state lawmakers are pushing a bill that would create laws intended to override New York Citys set of stringent and often complex regulations on the home-sharing industry. State Senator James Skoufis and Assemblyman Joe Lentol have introduced a bill that would require all short-term rentals in the city to be registered with the state, limit New Yorkers to listing only one home on one home-sharing platform, and allow the company to collect state and local tourist taxes. As part of an amendment made this week to allay concerns of affordable housing advocates, the bill would prohibit short-term rentals in public housing and rent-stabilized housing. Airbnb, which has fought other attempts at regulation but supports this legislation and asked Lentol to sponsor it, has said the bill would generate about $100 million in annual tax revenue for the state. The San Francisco-based home-sharing giant has more than 50,000 listings in New York City, which is the company's largest market, but city officials have argued that many of them are by commercial operators that rent out residential units as illegal tourist hotels. The de Blasio administration estimates that about one-third of listings on the top five short-term rental sites are commercial. Aggressive lobbying from both sides has cast a shadow over the debate. Skoufis, a Democrat from Orange County, has come under criticism for receiving nearly half a million dollars from Airbnbs political action committee. On the flip side, the Hotel Trades Council, one of the state's most powerful unions and a fierce opponent of Airbnb, spent about $400,000 on 2017 City Council races, and gave critical support to Council Speaker Corey Johnson during the speakers race, according to Politico. The fight over the legislation took an ugly turn on Wednesday, when Skoufis tweeted a screenshot of a text from HTCs political director, Jason Ortiz, requesting a meeting. Skoufis promptly canceled the meeting after seeing HTC share critical tweets of him. In a retaliation tweet, he referred to the HTC members as unprofessional thugs. 11:13am: Hotel Trades Council texts me asking for meeting. I call and respond Im happy to meet. Hours later: slings personal attacks at me. I look forward to working with my colleagues to address homesharing concerns. I will not work with unprofessional thugs. No one should. pic.twitter.com/O48XP1VpsD James Skoufis (@JamesSkoufis) April 10, 2019 The HTC responded with a torrent of tweets against Skoufis. In one tweet, the union accused the senator of using racially tinged name calling. .@JamesSkoufis with all due respect, calling the representatives of hardworking people in the labor community thugs & saying our passionate advocacy on their behalf is "thuggery" is not what we'd expect from a public servant & doesn't do anything to further a public policy debate Hotel Trades Council (@NYHTC) April 10, 2019 It's disappointing that anyone, let alone a Democratic Senator, would call a union that represents mostly people of color and women a thug. Policy debates should be able to happen without racially tinged name-calling. @JamesSkoufis, you can do better. Hotel Trades Council (@NYHTC) April 10, 2019 Skoufis spokesperson Jessica Gulotta told Gothamist, "Anyone accusing him of sponsoring a bill because of campaign support does not know James and has not bothered to look at his record as a legislator." Of the Hotel Trades Council, she said, "They have a PAC too, they donate too." (That PAC, Hotel Workers for Stronger Communities, gave around $400,000 to candidates in 2017's citywide elections.) Gulotta said Skoufis's controversial tweet was meant to reflect "the type of tactics used that are aggressive and bullying. That was the point he was trying to make there." In January, Airbnb, along with other home-sharing sites, won a huge victory against city regulations after a federal judge blocked the city from instituting a law that would have required home-sharing services to give monthly reports to the city with detailed information about tens of thousands of listings, including the identities and addresses of their hosts. De Blasio fought back, by issuing a subpoena for the information. New York is close to enacting new protections for rent-regulated tenants by making it easier for prosecutors to hold landlords criminally accountable for harassment. On Wednesday, the State Senate approved the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, a bill that came out of the Attorney Generals office and which was sponsored by Senator Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Joseph Lentol. The proposal is part of a package of bills that state lawmakers are expected to tackle this year that would add stronger protections for renters. The bill now awaits the approval of Governor Andrew Cuomo, who can sign it into law. Asked if Cuomo would sign the bill, spokesman Tyrone Stevens said in a statement, "Governor Cuomo has zero tolerance for tenant abuse of any kind, and that's why he led the charge and created the Tenant Protection Unit in 2012, which has been on the front lines in the fight against unscrupulous landlords. Preserving affordable housing and providing relief to tenants are critical priorities for this state, and our office will review this bill. According to an analysis of state criminal justice data by the Attorney General, not a single landlord in New York has ever been convicted of the crime of harassing a rent-regulated tenant. Lawmakers contend the lack of convictions reflects the current harassment standard, where a prosecutor must prove that the landlord intended not only to force a tenant out but also to cause a physical injury sustained by the tenant. The proposed law, which was drafted with the help of the AG's office, would make commonly reported harassment tactics such as turning off heat and hot water, exposing tenants to hazardous materials and creating uninhabitable conditions, subject to prosecutions. Under the bill, such actions could fall under a new class A misdemeanor, which would carry a maximum penalty of up to one year in jail. "It helps the legal definition match the reality of what people experience," said Emily Goldstein, director of organizing and advocacy at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. She added that a state-wide law would help often under-looked rent-regulated tenants in places outside of New York City, such as Long Island and Westchester County. Over the last few years, with the help of advocacy groups, New York City has developed a fairly extensive definition of landlord harassment that includes the actions specified in the state bill. But the city's harassment cases are typically mediated in housing court. The proposed state law would make landlord harassment potentially criminal conduct, adding a new level of deterrence, Goldstein said. Tenants would now have a "wider variety of legal options that may suit their needs," she said. There is not a lot of data on tenant harassment in New York City, according to Oksana Mironova, a housing policy analyst with the Community Service Society of New York. In 2017, the CSS introduced a question about harassment in their annual survey of low-income residents in New York City. The group found that 41 percent of low-income renters experienced at least one type of harassment. In a press release, Senator Krueger said, I urge the Governor to sign this bill so that rent-regulated New Yorkers can live free of the fear of harassment from their landlords." In a statement, Attorney General Letitia James said, The landlords behind these serious acts of tenant harassment have been able to evade justice because the standard for proving criminal culpability has been impossibly hightoday that begins to change. This bill will go a long way in protecting our most vulnerable tenants by changing the legal standard of harassment and allowing prosecutors to finally pursue these acts that have hurt countless New Yorkers. As Mayor Bill de Blasio stands at the precipice of launching a bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, voters who have long been central to his base here in New York City are expressing skepticism about his recent wanderlust, and frustration about what it may mean for his handling of issues at home. Voters overwhelmingly say de Blasio should not run for presidentand experts say if he does enter an already crowded and historically diverse field of declared Democratic candidates, hell need a different playbook than what worked in his 2013 run for mayor. The mayors base was built in Brooklyn, where voters repeatedly turned out for him in races for City Council, Public Advocate and Mayor. His highest approval ratings come from black voters, whose support for him continues to outpace every other group by double digit margins. Speaking at the National Action Networks Conference last week, de Blasio urged the largely black audience to keep demanding more from the countrys leaders, offering a sentiment that might reflect what he tells himself. Don't let anyone tell you what you can't do. Don't let anyone talk you out of your own power, he said gripping the podium. The ballroom was packed, shoulder-to-shoulder, but even the mayors biggest applause lines were met with a tepid reception. People were eagerly awaiting the next speaker: Stacey Abrams, who almost became the nations first black woman governor in a contentious election in Georgia marred by voting irregularities. When de Blasio was propelled by black voters from unlikeliest candidate to mayor in 2013, he did so by addressing New Yorkers who felt ignored for more than a decade under the previous administration, according to Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University and a scholar of black studies. She said she was quite excited, about the prospect of a new era. That excitement turned to disappointment over de Blasios squabbles with the press and what she perceives as disinterest in his second term. She also stressed that he can't frame himself the same way he did when he first ran for mayor. Let's be honest: 2013 was a very different racial moment, Greer said. Greer referenced the Dante ad, a campaign commercial that featured de Blasio's teenage son, a young black man with a full afro making the case for his father. The ad was considered widely successful, serving as a reveal to some and a reminder to others of his biracial family. This was before the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in Staten Island, the rise of a national Black Lives Matter movement and a shift in the conversation about justice, representation and how policy debates are shaped by experience and identity. I don't know if you pull that kind of ad today if it would be received the same way in this politicized, racialized moment, said Greer. De Blasio's supporters dismiss these critiques. Peter Ragone, a longtime friend and former City Hall adviser, said the mayor has been among the vanguard of talking about issues of race, justice and economic inequality. There's a simple fact that Bill de Blasio has never been the darling of elite opinion makers and the media, Ragone said, arguing that de Blasio has spent years cultivating relationships with voters that arent reflected in the stories that make the cover of the citys tabloids. Those relationships, Ragone said, are built on de Blasios personal understanding of the lives of everyday New Yorkers. He doesn't come from a position of power, he doesn't come from a position of privilege. He understands that what their struggles are, said Ragone. And that relationship with voters has been unshakeable through three elections in New York City. Back at the National Action Network Conference, Marian Johnson from Jamaica Hills, Queens said she voted for the mayor in the past, but shes not so sure he will earn her vote again. She expressed frustration with de Blasios recent travels. In recent weeks, hes visited early battleground states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Johnson wondered what he was doing to fix the city's public housing authority. You the mayor, said Johnson. You came into the city when NYCHA was crumbling and now its still crumbling and you running around the country. Patricia Vestral from the Bronx, a big de Blasio supporter in 2013, said the candidate she was most excited by so far was Julian Castro, the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and one-time mayor of San Antonio. Asked about de Blasios possible bid for higher office, she raised her eyebrows. Hmmmm, said Vestral thinking aloud then adding, can I put a hold on that one? she said Similar skepticism was borne out back in his Park Slope stomping grounds. Outside the YMCA, a place de Blasio frequents for his daily workout despite the drive from Gracie Mansion, Onilaja Waters pointed to problems with the citys transit system. She also pointed to the citys highly segregated schools. "Black children and people of color are still not getting a proper education," Waters said. "I would tell the people of the United States that this is someone who talks a progressive agenda, but what we see in New York City is very mixed." For more, listen to reporter Brigid Bergin's segment for WNYC: Brigid Bergin is the City Hall and politics reporter for WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @brigidbergin. As New York considers legalizing marijuana, attention is also turning to how the drug plays a role in the citys child welfare systemone that has the power to remove children from their parents and that investigates, almost exclusively, low-income families of color. Parents and advocates have reported that recreational marijuana use can lead to investigations of child maltreatment by the citys Administration for Childrens Services. Many times these investigations stem from testing pregnant women and their newborns at the citys public hospitals, according to testimony at a City Council hearing on Wednesday. Queens Councilwoman Adrienne Adams called the practice the systemic criminalization of women of color, which comes with the threat of separating children and parents. We are absolutely tearing families apart, needlessly, Adams said. The council is putting forward legislation requiring more reporting from ACS on how marijuana plays a role in its investigations. Shakira Kennedy, a 29-year-old mother of three children, told Council members that she was tested for marijuana when she was pregnant with twins, after disclosing to a doctor that she used pot to help with extreme nausea. To underscore her point, she noted that she weighed about 160 pounds before her pregnancy but dropped to less than 110 pounds during pregnancy. Kennedy said she did not consent to the drug test, but was tested anyway. Once her twins were born, a doctor told her he needed to report the toxicology test to child welfare. She said the Administration for Childrens Services came to the hospital while she was recovering from the birth. On my third day, ACS met me at my bedside and gave me the paper letting me know theyre launching a 60-day investigation, said Kennedy. She said she was required to attend a drug treatment program for several hours a day, multiple times per week, with her newborn twins in tow. I do not drink, I dont smoke cigarettes, Kennedy said. Im a hard-working, tax-paying citizen, and none of that was taken into consideration. Both state law and the official policy of the Administration for Childrens Services stipulates that drug use alone cannot support allegations of child neglect. Rather, drug misuse must lead to a parent not being able to take care of a child. David Hansell, the ACS commissioner, reiterated that policy on Wednesday. Neither a positive drug test of a parent, nor a positive toxicology of a newborn baby, is in itself a basis for a determination that evidence of abuse or neglect exists, Hansell said. But in practice, marijuana plays a recurring and outsized role in child neglect cases, according to public defenders who testified on Wednesday. While marijuana cant be the sole reason for a child abuse case, it is often used as a barrier to reuniting a parent and child, said Nila Natarajan, a supervising attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services. Often the Administration for Childrens Services requires onerous and lengthy drug treatment programs in order to close a case, plus ongoing drug testing, she said, even when parents repeatedly test negative for the drug. This demanding schedule can severely limit our clients ability to gain and maintain employment, to pursue an education or even to spend time with their children, said Natarajan. I have repeatedly been told by my clients that they have lost their jobs because of the demands of these drug treatment programs. Sometimes these neglect cases stem from drug testing pregnant women at the citys public hospitals. Machelle Allen, senior vice president and the chief medical officer at New York Citys Health and Hospitals Corporation, said the purpose of testing during pregnancy was to ensure that mothers had a full-term pregnancy without complications, and to offer treatment. She contended that obstetricians do not refer positive drug tests of mothers to the state register of child abuse and neglect. Allen said that pediatricians may test newborn babies as well, but that, again, the hospitals policy was not to report child neglect solely based on the toxicology report. Yet, as advocates and two mothers said under sworn testimony, it happens. Allen noted that it is the policy of Health and Hospitals to only test with the mothers informed consent, and a mother has a right to refuse. However, consent is not obtained in writing, only verbally between the doctor and mother, Allen said. And the patient is not provided anything in writing about the test or potential consequences. Nor is the hospitals testing policy for pregnant women made publicly available. Brooklyn Councilman Antonio Reynoso said the practice illustrated the institutionalized racism in the system. You are institutionally allowing for a process that is very questionable when it comes to consent to dictate the lives of these women and their children, he said. Yasmeen Khan is a reporter covering crime and policing at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter @yasmeenkhan. L-R Michael Yo, AJ McLean, Nick Carter, Jim Gibson, Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough; Live Nation Las VegasThe Backstreet Boys are the new kings of Las Vegas. On Wednesday night in Sin City, the Boys kicked off the final run of dates in their Larger Than Life residency at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood, but were interrupted onstage for a special presentation. Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson presented the group with the keys to the Las Vegas Strip, and declared Wednesday, April 10 as Backstreet Boys Day. On Friday afternoon, the best-selling boy band will put their hand prints in cement inside Planet Hollywood, and at that ceremony, they'll present Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada with a donation check. Since Larger Than Life began in 2017, a dollar from every ticket has been earmarked for the organization. Adding to the festivities is the fact that Friday, April 12 just happens to be the 20th anniversary of the day the group's signature hit "I Want It That Way" was released. The Boys wrap up their residency for good on April 27, and then head out on their DNA World Tour, which starts May 11 in Portugal. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. With just two weeks before disruptive rehabilitation construction on the L train tunnel under the East River begins, the MTA hasnt released a final schedule, updated cost of the project, or explained why a third party was never hired to review the plan before moving forward with it. But recently appointed MTA Chairman Pat Foye argued Wednesday that the project has been transparent. And the proof of that, he said, is a two word test. If you know what benchwall and FRP is, then the MTAs transparency in replacing the 15-month shutdown with a partial nights-and-weekends disruption has been a success. I think there are New Yorkers that are going to be at cocktail parties this weekend or barbecues, weather depending, and theyre going to be discussing benchwall, Foye said. And there are going to be other people at PTA meetings or watching their kids in the playground discussing FRP. Foye offered further proof, like the press conference Governor Cuomo held with the Deans of Columbia and Cornell in the middle of the night last December. And a follow up press conference afterward. While the MTA held many town halls and presentations and showed up at every community board meeting along the L line multiple times to discuss the original L train shutdown, it held just four open houses in Brooklyn and Manhattan to discuss the new plan, which Foye described as an extraordinary amount of community meetings both before and after the new plan was launched. When asked what the new timeline is for the project on Thursday, Foye declined to answer. We dont want to step on our lede, youll have to come to the meeting next week, he said. Thursdays meeting was to discuss another month of improved service statistics, touting service levels that havent been seen since 2013. On average, trains are getting to the end of the line on schedule 78 percent of the time in March, compared with 65 percent in March of 2018. But not all lines are equal. The 7 has new signals and is on time 91 percent of the time, while the A train is still lagging at 63 percent. The MTA also noted with the Subway Action Plan it has brought the number of monthly delays down to 37,600 last month, from 63,210 in March of 2018. MTA Managing Director Ronnie Hakim argued that the public will have good alternative service options during the unspecified length of time that L train construction continues on nights and weekends. The whole point is to give people choices, she said. That is the beauty of the New York City subway system which is that its very redundant, there are lots of intersecting lines and were encouraging people to do that. Of course, problems at one station always cause cascading delaysremember, oh, say Monday? Stephen Nessen is the transportation reporter for WNYC. You can follow him on Twitter @s_nessen. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High 78F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Cloudy. Low 67F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. ABC/Randy HolmesT.I. has doubled down on his criticism of Kodak Black, who notably made insensitive remarks about Nipsey Hussle's longtime girlfriend Lauren London during a recent Instagram Live session. The pioneering rapper was quick to check Kodak over his comments, and has since been canceled an exhibition highlighting the Florida artist that was on display at his popular Trap Music Museum in Atlanta. But during a recent run-in with TMZ, T.I. had even more thoughts to share on Kodak's antics "The respect of a non-respectable person is not valued," T.I. said in response to a cameraman when asked about Kodak "ramping up" the controversy. He added: "I'm respected by respectable people, people who actually can be held to high regard." T.I. then went on to offer Kodak some solid advice, which he hoped the rapper would be open to receiving. "I urge him to go educate himself and enlighten himself because if he knew better, he'd do better," the 39-year-old said. "I just hope he fix it before it fix him." He continued, "I don't wish no pain on him, I don't wish no harm on him, but ultimately the laws of reciprocity are in order at all times. You get what you give so the energy he's putting out there, it's gon' come find him." Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The online journal Sapiens invited me to write up my thoughts about the announcement of Homo luzonensis yesterday. I do have more to say about this cool discovery, but I wanted to share that article here also, for readers who might not have seen it: This week, anthropologists working in the Philippines unveil new fossils that they say belong to a previously undiscovered species of human relatives. The fossils come from Callao Cave, on the northern island of Luzon, and are at least 50,000 years old. The team, led by Florent Detroit of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, have named the new species Homo luzonensis after the island where it lived. Teeth from the Callao Cave individual that serves as the holotype for Homo luzonensis, CCH6. With only seven teeth, three foot bones, two finger bones, and a fragment of thigh, the set of Callao fossils doesnt give much to go on. Their small size is reminiscent of Homo floresiensis, the tiny-bodied species discovered in 2003 on the island of Flores, Indonesia, that lived around the same time. But there arent enough remains here to say just how tall Homo luzonensis was. And, unfortunately, the team was unsuccessful in attempts to find DNA. Many people will wonder, on such slim evidence, if the declaration of a new species is warranted. I was fortunate to be a part of the team that discovered the new hominin species Homo naledi, which lived in South Africa around 250,000 years ago. That work was published in 2015. Such discoveries seemed almost unimaginable 20 years ago, when I was finishing my Ph.D. At that time, some of the most respected anthropologists actually suggested that the hunt for hominin fossils was almost over. Funding agencies directed their efforts away from exploring for new fossils and toward new technologies to wring more precious data from fossils discovered in the past. Yet the last 20 years have seen an unprecedented burst of new discoveries. Some, like H. naledi and H. floresiensis, represent branches of the human family tree that separated from the modern human line quite early and yet survived until a surprisingly recent time. Was H. luzonensis another such population? To establish that these fragmentary fossils justify recognition as a new species, a key first step is to exclude their membership to modern humans. Living people of the Philippines include some very small-bodied groups. Small size alone is not enough to place the Callao fossil teeth outside the range of modern people. To go further, Detroit and colleagues studied the details of the bones and teeth. Together, they represent a mash of features that are confusingly reminiscent of a huge range of other hominins, and together make for something new and hard to classify. The molars, for example, are small compared to every other known species, while the adjacent premolars, bizarrely, are not so small. The molar crowns have a simple, humanlike pattern, but the premolars bear resemblance to the larger teeth more typical in older species, including H. floresiensis and some early specimens of Homo erectus. Some premolars have three roots, as sometimes found in H. erectus and more distant human relatives. The toe and finger bones also seem different from modern humans: One finger bone is curved, and the toe doesnt seem to have been able to bend upward at the ball of the foot as much as ours. In some ways, these bones resemble hominins that lived more than 2 million years ago, such as Lucys species, Australopithecus afarensis. No other known species shares the whole set of features found at Callao. So, what does this discovery mean? To me, it solidifies the case that ancient human relatives were a lot smarter and more adaptable than we used to give them credit for. The low sea level stand of the last glaciation is just below 120 m, indicated here on the map. Flores, Sulawesi, and Luzon all have archaeological remains that predate any evidence of modern human presence in the region. Flores lies about 2,000 miles to the south of Luzon, but both islands share a peculiar geography: Land bridges never connected these islands to the Asian continent. Another large, disconnected island in the region is Sulawesi. There, stone tools from a site called Talepu were made by hominins more than 118,000 years ago, though no fossils have been found yet to indicate who was making them. Some anthropologists have thought that the colonization of such islands over water was due to luck. Maybe ancient storms or tsunamis washed a few unsuspecting survivors onto ancient beaches. But where one strange event might be attributed to luck, three are much more interesting. The evidence for life on these islands goes back a long way. Some hominins were making stone tools on Flores more than a million years ago, and the oldest hominin fossil on that island is around 700,000 years old. Last year, paleoarchaeologist Thomas Ingicco, from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and colleagues reported on work at the site of Kalinga, Luzon. There, they found stone tools and butchered rhinoceros bones, also around 700,000 years old. Very early forms of Homo must have surpassed barriers and found new ways of life in places with very different climates and plant and animal communities than their African ancestors. Meanwhile, within Africa, a diversity of hominin species continued to exist throughout most of the last million years. Its too early for us to say whether the earliest inhabitants of Flores and Luzon gave rise to H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis. I wouldnt bet on it. Many new arrivals may have come between the first occupations and the later appearance of modern people in the region. One such arrival may have been the Denisovans, a mysterious group known from DNA evidence. Todays people of the Philippines bear genetic traces of Denisovan ancestry, and new analyses of Denisovan genetic contribution in New Guinea suggest deep roots for this ancient group. Could the Denisovans have existed on Flores, Sulawesi, or the Philippines? To answer such questions, we must reinvest in exploration. The new discoveries of the past decade or so have transformed the field of human origins. New methods of exploration, and more intensive exploration of underrepresented regions, have introduced a new paradigm. Ancient groups of human relatives were varied and adaptable. They sometimes mixed with one another, and that mixing gave rise to new evolutionary solutions. Our species today is the lone survivor of this complicated history. We have replaced or absorbed every other branch of our family tree. Many more of these branches are surely waiting for us to find them. This work first appeared on SAPIENS under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Read the original here. Further Creeping Attempts at Infringing on Gun Rights By Dean Weingarten. April 10th, 2019 Original Source The Democrats in the House of Representatives are attempting to expand the number of classes of people prohibited from exercising Constitutionally protected Second Amendment rights. Those prohibitions have been added to H.R. 1585, a re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The Act had not previously been used to restrict gun ownership. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has added the infringements to the current bill. In 1968, the number of classes of prohibited possessors, those people who were not allowed to possess or own firearms, was greatly expanded. Before 1968, the classes of people who could not possess firearms were decided by state law. When the Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed, six categories of people who were not allowed to purchase firearms from federal dealers were created. The list included categories which did not exist in most states. The categories were these: 1. Not a legal resident of the State where the federal dealership is located 2. People under the age of 21 for handguns, and 18 for rifles and shotguns. 3. Convicted felons or those under indictment for a felony (a crime punishable by more than a year of imprisonment) 4. Fugitives from justice (fled from any State to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimony in any criminal proceeding) 5. Those adjudicated to be mentally defective or who has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution. 6. Unlawful user/addicted to a controlled substance The last four categories were prohibited from possessing firearms. In 1987, Congress added four additional categories: 1. Illegal aliens 2. Persons Dishonorably discharged from the military 3. Persons who have renounced U.S. Citizenship 4. People who are subject to a restraining order for domestic violence, harassment, or stalking (required a court hearing finding the person restrained was a threat) In 1996, Congress added another category, people convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. In 2019, the Democrats in the House are seeking to expand the latest class, domestic violence, by changing it from intimate partner to include "dating partner " or "former dating partner". They are also seeking to add another class of prohibited people. The additional class would be: those convicted of a "misdemeanor crime of stalking", which includes a "course of harassment, intimidation, or surveillance of another person. Stalking or harassment does not include any physical harm. The crime of stalking or harassment is relatively knew, with the first laws being enacted in California in 1990. The crime is defined to include creation of either a reasonable fear of material harm or emotional distress to another person. With zealous prosecutors, it would be possible for a person to be convicted of harassment for a series of tweets that caused "emotional distress". In many states, there is no right to trial by jury for misdemeanor offenses. The general trend is easy to see. More and more classes of people who are prohibited from exercising their rights under the Second Amendment; less and less serious offenses are being used to take Second Amendment rights from people. The expansion of the classes of prohibited persons and the expansion of offenses from felonies to misdemeanors results in a serious erosion of Second Amendment rights. Several of the prohibited classes in existence have not been in existence for very long. In the Supreme Court decision a controversial sentence is said to have been added at the instigation of Justice Stevens and the insistence of Justice Kennedy: The Courts opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Most of the prohibited classes are not mentioned. Only "felons and the mentally ill" are mentioned. It is uncertain if the Court would uphold challenges against the proliferation of prohibited classes. "Mentally ill" is far from clear. That prohibition is being challenged already, as are the prohibitions as applied to non-violent felonies. The other classes are far from longstanding. Second Amendment supporters would prefer to stop the current push by the Democrats to create expanded and new classes of prohibited possessors, rather than challenge the law in the Courts. Another Justice appointed by President Trump could make a major difference in the restoration of Second Amendment rights. 2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch Back to Top KABC-TV(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) -- Two hikers missing for five days on California's Mount Baldy have been found alive after rescuers tracked their footprints to their camp, according to authorities. Eric Desplinter and Gabrielle Wallace had gone hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains in San Bernardino County, California, on Saturday and were expected to return that night. But when the two hadn't returned by 8 p.m., friends reported the two missing. The San Bernardino County Sheriff said late Wednesday the two had been rescued after days of desperate searching. Authorities said rescuers found two sets of footprints in Cucamonga Canyon Wednesday at which point they alerted a search-and-rescue helicopter to fly over the area. The helicopter spotted Desplinter, 33, and Wallace, 31, at a campfire and lifted them to safety late Wednesday. "We're very grateful to be found tonight. I'm ready to get to bed and get some rest," Desplinter told Los Angeles ABC station KABC-TV. The pair apparently lost the trail and when they tried to descend through a valley, it "was more treacherous than we thought," Desplinter said. "Best possible outcome weve been hoping for!" San Bernardino County Sgt. Jeff Allison tweeted. "Thank you to all of the Search and Rescue volunteers, aviation units, and our assisting agency partners. Training, hard work, and perseverance paid [off]." Desplinter was an experienced hiker, but authorities previously said the two had limited supplies of food and water. The two rationed food and drank water through a LifeStraw, which can filter dirty water. Search teams had previously found their car at the bottom of the mountain. "Eric and Gabrielle will be flown to the Mt. Baldy Fire Station where they will be reunited with their families and loved ones, then evaluated by paramedics to determine if they need further treatment at a local hospital," the sheriff's office said in a statement. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office also assisted in the search, which covered 30 square miles over parts of five days. San Bernardino Sheriff John McMahon also thanked volunteers for their help in locating the missing pair. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Joshua Jackson was found dead in a Georgia storage unit last month, according to police. (Gwinnett County Police Department)(LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.) -- Police charged a fourth suspect on Wednesday in connection with the deaths of two men whose bodies were found in a Georgia storage unit last month. Derrick Ruff and Joshua Jackson, both 25, were found with fatal gunshot wounds at a storage facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia, on March 17, nearly three months after their families reported them missing, according to the Gwinnett County Police Department. The victims were last seen riding in a Ford Expedition on Dec. 18. Authorities recovered the vehicle two days later in Lawrenceville, about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta. "As more suspects are identified, additional people could be charged. As of now, detectives are still trying to determine the link between the storage facility unit with the suspects and victims," the department said in a statement. "The renters of the storage unit have been cooperative with this investigation." Officers said the deaths were being investigated as a double homicide, but murder charges had not been filed as of early Thursday, court records showed. Police said their killings could be connected to other deaths in the area. Four men -- Lesley Green, 30; Shabbazz Guidry, 24; Robert Carlisle, 32; and Justin Davis, 29 -- have been named as suspects in the case, but only Green and Guidry are in custody. Police said the motive appears to be gang-related. Authorities arrested Guidry on charges of concealing the death of another on Wednesday. Carlisle, who is still on the run, and Green have also been charged with concealing the death of another, but police say they could face additional charges. Davis, who faces charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, was also on the run as of Thursday. Police declined to offer details on his specific involvement. "Daviss whereabouts are currently unknown. His specific involvement in the crime is not being released at this time," the Gwinnett County Police Department said in a statement. "Robert Maurice Carlisle is still on the run. He and Lesley Chappell Green are each facing two additional warrants for participating in criminal gang activity." It's unclear if Green and Guidry, the two suspects in custody, have retained attorneys. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. 1. Yes. Patrol cars in the lot and armed officers inside would deter would-be criminals. 2. Yes. Police should announce their plans and be highly visible during store hours. 3. No. The citys police officers have other obligations. More private security is the answer. 4. No. Perhaps, but installing more surveillance cameras would be a better deterrent. 5. Unsure. More police might help, but it could also stretch KPDs resources too thin. Vote View Results Blablo101/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- The Pentagon's new policy that places limits on the military service of transgender individuals goes into effect on Friday, nearly two years after President Donald Trump tweeted that he wanted to ban transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military. The new policy largely requires service members and those wishing to join the military to adhere to the standards associated with their biological sex. Service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria, defined as "a marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender ... associated with clinically significant distress and impairment of functioning," will no longer be allowed medical surgeries for gender transition unless they are currently in the process of receiving medical treatment. And transgender individuals who have received hormones or medical surgery related to their transition are now barred from joining the military, even if they can prove stability in their preferred gender. The Pentagon asserts that the new policy is not a ban on transgender individuals, saying "all persons will continue to be treated with dignity and respect." A string of lawsuits were filed after Trump called for the ban in July 2017. He has not tweeted about the issue since. A federal judge lifted the final injunction of the ban last month, allowing the Pentagon to proceed with its implementation of the new policy. In the meantime, four outstanding lawsuits will proceed in courts across the country with the plaintiffs arguing the ban is unconstitutional. In preparation for the policy to take effect on Friday, a Pentagon spokesperson told ABC News that fact sheets have been provided to military medical providers, service members, applicants, commanders, recruiters and to those in the human resources field. Transgender service members who were serving in their preferred gender prior to Friday will be grandfathered in under the Obama administration policy, which allowed transgender individuals to serve openly. "There's transgender people who have been scrambling to try to hurry up, come out and begin the transition process so that they can be included in this so-called grandfathered group," said Shannon Minter, one of the lead attorneys for two of the lawsuits filed against the policy. "So that has been a source of enormous stress and anxiety." Minter, a transgender man and the Legal Director for NCLR, described transgender service members as in a "state of despair" and fear as the new policy is implemented. He said the military will lose skilled, highly qualified individuals from service because of their gender identity and that the new policy could "encourage bias and discrimination." "This is absolutely 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' for transgender people," Minter told ABC News, referring to the Pentagon's policy in the 1990s and early 2000s that banned gay and lesbian service members from serving openly in uniform. In a message to sailors in advance of the new policy, the Navy said people were permitted to "live socially" in their preferred gender while not on duty, as long as they conform to the standards associated with their biological sex while in uniform. "There is no policy that prohibits the ability of a service member to express themselves off-duty in their preferred gender," officials said in a recently released Navy administrative message, according to Military.com which obtained the guidance. "Appropriate civilian attire, as outlined in the uniform regulations, will not be determined based on gender." Yet the Pentagon has said the policy doesn't require transgender service members to conceal their gender identity. "Gender is a fundamental aspect of a person's identity," Minter said. "It cannot be turned on and off like a switch, and the very notion of requiring a non-transgender person to do so would immediately be recognized as cruel and unworkable. It is equally cruel and unworkable for transgender people." The Pentagon asserts that about 9,000 service members self-identify as transgender. In a hearing earlier this year, a top defense official told Congress that the Obama administration policy would "degrade military readiness" in the long term. But the four service chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps have testified publicly that the presence of transgender service members has had no effect on unit cohesion, discipline or morale -- a sentiment echoed by the active duty transgender service members. Defense officials were asked by reporters last month for the data that shows transgender individuals have a negative effect on military readiness and unit cohesion, but officials conceded that it doesn't exist because the Pentagon doesn't track transgender service members. Instead, officials pointed to the panel of experts assembled by former Defense Secretary James Mattis who used their military and professional judgment to make policy recommendations. The full transgender policy for military service is available here. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. FILE PHOTO: A Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft is parked at a Boeing production facility in Renton, Washington, U.S., March 11, 2019. REUTERS/David Ryder/File Photo By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will this week hold a meeting with major U.S. airlines that fly the currently grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and three major pilots' unions, the agency confirmed on Thursday. The meeting, to be held on Friday at FAA headquarters in Washington, is set for three hours and will include safety representatives from American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines Co as well as officials from the three labor unions. More than 300 Boeing 737 MAX jets have been grounded worldwide after nearly 350 people died in two crashes - one in Indonesia in October and another in Ethiopia last month. The FAA is also convening a joint review with aviation regulators from China, Europe, Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, Ethiopia and other countries. American and United have canceled flights through early June, while Southwest on Thursday announced it has canceled flights through Aug. 5 because of the 737 MAX grounding. Boeing has reprogrammed software on its 737 MAX passenger jet to prevent erroneous data from triggering an anti-stall system that is under mounting scrutiny following the two deadly nose-down crashes and revised pilot training. Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said on Thursday that the software update is working, with about two-thirds of the fast-selling jetliner's customers having seen the fix in simulator sessions. But on April 1, Boeing said it had delayed submitting the proposed revisions to the FAA for approval. The FAA said the meeting is to help "the FAA to gather facts, information, and individual views to further understand their views as FAA decides what needs to be done before returning the aircraft to service." The agency "continues to gather all available information and data in considering the return of the 737 MAX to service," it added. Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association that represents pilots at American Airlines, said he expected the union would be able to "provide feedback and input regarding pilot training related to the 737 MAX." Story continues The airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Federal prosecutors aided by the FBI, the Department of Transportation's inspector generals office and a blue-ribbon panel, are also reviewing the 737 MAXs certification and other issues surrounding the aircraft. U.S. lawmakers and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting their own reviews of the FAA's certification process, which delegates some tasks to the manufacturers. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; editing by James Dalgleish and G Crosse) FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen at a branch office of private Bank J. Safra Sarasin in Basel October 26, 2014. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo By John Miller ZURICH (Reuters) - Three Germans on trial in Switzerland for helping expose a tax-stripping scheme that cost European governments billions of euros will likely avoid prison after a verdict on Thursday that fell well short of prosecutors' demands. The men, Stuttgart-based lawyer Eckart Seith and two former employees of Basel-based Bank J. Safra Sarasin, had faced up to 3-1/2 years in prison for numerous charges. Instead, they got suspended fines and jail terms for violating banking secrecy. "The Zurich District Court condemns three persons, accused of transferring a bank customer list to a German lawyer, for multiple violations of the banking law," the court said in a statement, adding one banker was also found guilty of industrial espionage and coercion. The defendants were acquitted of all other charges, the court said. Seith could not be reached immediately for comment. He told German newspaper FAZ he would lodge an appeal. The case, in which prosecutors said the accused passed secret Swiss bank documents to German authorities, is linked to the border-crossing fraud investigation into so-called "cum-ex trades" in which financial powerhouses including BlackRock, Spain's Santander and Deutsche Bank are under scrutiny. In the 2001-2011 scheme, European governments were duped into believing a stock had multiple owners, each entitled to a dividend and a tax credit. Germany, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and other countries lost tax revenue that instead benefited wealthy investors. The Zurich trial was linked to German drug chain billionaire Erich Mueller, a Bank Sarasin client who lost around 50 million euros (43.1 million pounds) in 2012 on cum-ex trades after German tax officials balked at paying him a tax credit. Mueller, seeking to recoup his money from Sarasin, hired Seith and worked with the two German bankers, both of whom spent time in investigative custody in Switzerland. In 2017, a German court ruled Bank Sarasin had to pay 45 million euros to Mueller. Sarasin's ex-deputy chief executive, Eric Sarasin, in 2016 also paid a settlement in Germany. Story continues Switzerland, the world's largest offshore wealth centre, last year began sharing bank data with many foreign tax authorities, bowing to international pressure to help crack down on tax cheats. Still, the Zurich case shows the nation continues to move aggressively against people who pass on bank information to foreign individuals or governments. Meanwhile, German media have celebrated Seith for helping expose the cum-ex scheme. (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by David Holmes) (Adds details from document, Merkel) By Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS, April 10 (Reuters) - Germany, France, Luxembourg and the EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier favoured a shorter delay to Britain's departure from the bloc in talks on the eve of a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, a document seen by Reuters showed. EU leaders meeting on Wednesday are set to grant Britain a second delay to Brexit but have not yet decided how long this new extension should be. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May has asked for an extension until June 30. Summit chair Donald Tusk favours a longer, flexible Brexit delay of up to 12 months. EU ministers on Tuesday were divided on the duration of the extension, the document shows. Those backing a shorter respite for Britain said it would keep up pressure on the divided British parliament to ratify the withdrawal agreement May reached with the EU in November. Germany was among those expressing support for a shorter extension at the meeting in Luxembourg, the document shows. That appeared to contrast with what German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament on Wednesday when she favoured an extension of "several months". France also supported a shorter extension at that meeting, in line with its harder line on Brexit. At the meeting, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic preferred a longer postponement, saying it could scare Brexit supporters in Britain into backing May's exit deal over fears Britain might otherwise never leave the EU. "Almost all delegations expressed an openness to an extension," the document says, "but many attached clear conditions", including a credible exit plan to be submitted by May. The extension should be "commensurate" to the purpose that it plans to serve, EU ministers said, according to the document. At the meeting, Barnier also said should the United Kingdom opt for a customs union with the EU after Brexit, it would solve the problem of customs checks on the Irish border, but industry regulation checks would still be required. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Janet Lawrence) Alana E. Fortna, Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir Alana E. Fortna, Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir The Clean Water Act regulates the discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States pursuant to National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or an authorized state agency. This is not a new concept. However, what has come to be known as the groundwater conduit theory is disrupting the long-standing understanding of what is and what isnt covered by the Clean Water Act. This new theory also creates questions for companies and attorneys dealing with Superfund sites and waste management units regulated under RCRA. This article discusses the circuit split on this theory and what I view as potential implications for Superfund sites and waste management units depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules. Several federal cases have addressed the issue of the indirect discharge of pollutants into jurisdictional waters via groundwater transport, and the Supreme Court may weigh in on this question soon. This is an important issue with far-reaching ramifications because it is generally understood that all groundwater that is not otherwise removed (i.e., pumped for drinking water supply) will eventually discharge to a surface water. The Clean Water Act prohibits discharges of pollutants from a point source without a NPDES permit, 33 U.S.C. Section 1342. A point source is defined as any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. Based on this definition, discharges into and through groundwater have not been considered point source discharges because they are not the typical end of the pipe discharges. Recent case law out of the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Fourth, Ninth and Sixth Circuit has resulted in a circuit split on coverage under the Clean Water Act. In Upstate Forever v. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, 887 F.3d 637 (4th Cir. 2018), the Fourth Circuit evaluated Clean Water Act coverage for a discharge from a ruptured pipeline in South Carolina. The court interpreted the Clean Water Act to prohibit indirect discharges from point sources to navigable waters as long as the discharge is sufficiently connected to navigable waters. To be sufficiently connected, there must be a direct hydrological connection between the point source and the navigable waters. In Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, 886 F.3d 737 (9th Cir. 2018), the Ninth Circuit addressed discharges to wastewater treatment plant wells that eventually reached the Pacific Ocean. The Ninth Circuit similarly found Clean Water Act liability based on indirect discharges but further limited coverage to instances where the pollutants are fairly traceable from the point source to a navigable water such that the discharge is the functional equivalent of a discharge into the navigable water and the pollutants that reach the surface water are more than de minimis. The Sixth Circuit diverged from both the Fourth and Ninth circuits by holding that both courts expanded Clean Water Act coverage beyond what was envisioned. The Sixth Circuit reviewed two cases involving discharges from coal ash ponds and held that a discharge for purposes of the Clean Water Act occurs only where the pollutant is added to jurisdictional waters by virtue of a point-source conveyance, see Kentucky Waterways Alliance v. Kentucky Utilities, 905 F.3d 925 (6th Cir. 2018) and Tennessee Clean Water Network v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 905 F.3d 436 (6th Cir. 2018). The decisions of the Fourth and Ninth circuits have been appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has granted the petition from the Ninth Circuit case as to the following question: Whether the Clean Water Act requires a permit when pollutants originate from a point source but are conveyed to navigable waters by a nonpoint source, such as groundwater. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the petition from the Fourth Circuit case, which asks the court to consider whether the Clean Water Act also applies to discharges into soil or groundwater whenever there is a direct hydrological connection between the groundwater and nearby navigable waters. If the Supreme Court agrees to hear both appeals from the Fourth and Ninth circuits, the decisions could have an impact on companies and attorneys involved in Superfund site cleanups and waste management units at operating facilities. With regard to Superfund sites, a decision that affirms the Fourth and Ninth circuits could create future liability at a site where a company has already invested significant time and expense in a remedial investigation and design work. If a company has not achieved complete source control, then it could arguably face additional liability under the Clean Water Act for contamination that is migrating from the source area into groundwater and ultimately to a navigable water. The issue becomes more complicated when it is a large Superfund site with multiple source properties contributing the same contaminants of concern. Who shoulders the liability under the Clean Water Act? How do the companies establish that they are not the source of the discharge from the groundwater to the surface water? Is there a plausible way to apportion the liability when you have a commingled plume? These are questions that are not easily answered and could be very costly to answer. Moreover, remediation activities at Superfund sites take time and are subject to an established procedure under the regulatory scheme. Depending on how the Supreme Court rules, this procedure could be disrupted by citizen suit challenges. Environmental groups who disagree with the agencys approach to the remediation or who think the remediation work is taking too long could attempt to influence the remedial action through a Clean Water Act citizen suit. Similarly, the requirements for design, operation and closure of hazardous waste management units at operating facilities are regulated under RCRA. Specific regulations have been developed for various types of hazardous waste management units under Subtitle C of RCRA in 40 CFR parts 264, 265 and 266. The regulatory requirements are intended to protect human health and the environment from the risks posed by hazardous waste. Closure decisions that are made pursuant to solid waste regulations under RCRA (or state law by delegation) can be challenged by citizen groups under the Clean Water Act. This is problematic because there is more certainty under RCRA versus the Clean Water Act. In this regard, the Clean Water Act prohibits unpermitted discharges regardless of the level of pollutants or any evaluation risk. For a RCRA citizen suit, the plaintiff has the heavy burden of establishing an imminent and substantial endangerment. Because RCRA is based on level of risk, it does not necessarily follow that the only remedy will be source removal. Rather, there are likely multiple remedial alternatives that can abate a RCRA violation or be approved as a final remedy at a Superfund site. If the Supreme court establishes liability under the Clean Water Act for scenarios involving hazardous waste management units, then companies closing such a unit could face citizen suits where the environmental group argues that the only appropriate remedy is elimination of the discharge (i.e., removal of the source). In short, how this case law develops is relevant not only from a NPDES permitting standpoint, but also from a remediation and waste management standpoint. Depending on how the groundwater conduit theory progresses, it could lead to substantial uncertainty for companies dealing with remediation at Superfund sites or closure of a hazardous waste management unit. Babst Calland Clements & Zomnir will continue to monitor this case law for purposes of evaluating its potential impact on these regulatory schemes. Alana Fortnais a shareholder in the environmental and litigation groups of Babst Calland Clements & Zomnir. She represents clients in large-scale cost recovery actions under CERCLA and state law statutes, actions seeking injunctive relief under RCRA, and citizens suits brought under various federal statutes and regulatory programs including the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. Contact her at afortna@babstcalland.com. Baker Hughes' (BHGE) better-than-expected earnings in first-quarter 2019 are backed by higher order volume in the Subsea Production Systems business. We are upbeat about CNOOC Limiteds CEO prospects and view it as a promising pick at the moment. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a VGM Score of B. Our research shows that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy) offer the best investment opportunities. Lets delve deeper to analyze the factors that are working in favor of this Hong Kong-based energy player. New Oil & Gas Discoveries Through 2018, CNOOC reported 17 new oil and natural gas discoveries of which 12 were made in China and the remaining five in Stabroek block, Guyana. In the Stabroek block with total recoverable resources of 5.5 billion barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) the company has made a total of 12 discoveries. Notably, the five latest discoveries made by CNOOC in Stabroek are considered among the best 10 oil and gas discoveries across the globe in 2018. In early 2019, CNOOC reported two major discoveries Tilapia and Haimara in the Stabroek block. The massive success in the exploration front is likely to back the companys oil and gas production. Potential to Capitalize on LNG Business To combat the dangerously high pollution levels, China has been taking bold steps to generate energy from natural gas instead of coal. Strong focus on cleaner energy by Beijing is giving the LNG market a significant boost. Notably, China is now the second-largest importer of LNG in the world. Since CNOOC has invested the maximum in LNG receiving terminals in China, the company is well positioned to capitalize on the growing LNG business. Owing to this, CNOOC is likely report earnings growth of 5% and 6.1% through 2019 and 2020, respectively. Other Stocks to Consider A few other prospective players in the energy space are Antero Resources Corporation AR, Royal Dutch Shell plc RDS.A and ProPetro Holding Corp. PUMP. While Antero Resources and NGL Energy sport a Zacks Rank #1, ProPetro Holding carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Story continues Antero Resources is likely to see earnings growth of 20% over the next five years. Royal Dutch Shell is likely to see earnings growth of 8% over the next five years, higher than the industrys 7.6%. ProPetro Holding is likely to see 19.5% earnings growth through 2019. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year? Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. See Latest Stocks Today >> 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 CNOOC Limited (CEO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) : Free Stock Analysis Report Antero Resources Corporation (AR) : Free Stock Analysis Report ProPetro Holding Corp. (PUMP) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 11, 2019) - International Lithium Corp. (TSXV: ILC) (the "Company" or "ILC") reports analytical results for the 2018 drill program at the Avalonia lithium pegmatite project in Ireland. The results were received from the Company's joint venture partner, GFL International Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd. ("Ganfeng Lithium" or "GFL"). GFL is the Operator of the project (see the Company's news release dated May 14, 2018 for further details). A total of 1947.6 metres of NQ diameter core drilling was completed in fifteen drill holes spanning a strike length of approximately 400 metres at the Moylisha prospect of the Avalonia Project. The drilling to date suggests that the pegmatites, including spodumene pegmatites, are open to the northeast and southwest along strike and at depth. Current ownership of the Avalonia Project is through a joint venture company, Blackstairs Lithium Limited, a private company registered in Ireland, owned 55% by Ganfeng Lithium and 45% by ILC. In addition, Ganfeng Lithium has an option to acquire another 24% by either incurring CAD $10 million expenditures on exploration activities or delivering a positive feasibility study on the project, at which time the ownership will be 79% Ganfeng Lithum and 21% ILC. 2018 Drilling Highlights Several of the drill holes have successfully intercepted multiple occurrences of spodumene bearing pegmatites. Table 1 summarizes intervals with the most significant lithium results. Note that the reported widths are drill intercept widths and do not represent true thickness. See Table 2 for coordinate locations and orientation of the drill holes. Sample intervals with 1.00% Li2O are reported (with the addition of one at 0.99%). All drill hole widths are drill intercepts and do not represent true thickness of the mineralization. True thickness of the mineralization is not known at this time. Story continues Adjacent samples were composited and shoulders or contained samples were included. Isolated samples with 0.50% Li2O were noted as geologically significant anomalies that may aide in interpretation but are not included here as part of the summary results. A review of the QA/QC data was conducted. No issues were noted in the results returned by blanks inserted for validation. None of the eight CRM results fell outside the 3 SD range, but two (adjacent) samples fell outside the 2 SD range, although one was only slightly outside. Four of the results were within 1 SD range and the batch average falls within 1 SD. All but one of the CRMs were below the CRM value suggesting a slightly low bias in the lithium results. Table 1: Significant lithium results from the 2018 Avalonia Project Drill Program Hole ID Grade (%Li2O) Width* (m) From (m) To (m) MOY18-04 1.12 0.34 93.93 94.27 MOY18-06 2.55 2.05 75.17 77.22 MOY18-06 1.17 0.74 97.46 98.20 MOY18-08 2.17 0.71 9.77 10.48 MOY18-10 1.56 2.15 31.43 33.58 MOY18-11 1.03 12.29 86.27 98.56 MOY18-11 1.27 1.88 100.32 102.20 MOY18-11 1.49 1.40 105.45 106.85 MOY18-11 1.04 3.28 121.42 124.70 MOY18-13 1.35 4.28 68.32 72.60 MOY18-14 2.13 1.85 108.77 110.62 MOY18-14 0.99 1.18 112.52 113.70 MOY18-16 1.69 1.44 21.63 23.07 MOY18-16 1.06 1.59 40.83 42.42 MOY18-16 1.32 1.62 67.65 69.27 MOY18-17 2.08 3.14 44.34 47.48 MOY18-17 1.11 1.15 50.70 51.85 MOY18-17 1.18 1.01 53.15 54.16 MOY18-18 1.38 0.72 22.08 22.80 MOY18-18 2.78 0.72 49.83 50.55 MOY18-18 1.95 0.64 55.64 56.28 MOY18-18 2.13 0.65 81.21 81.86 *Reported widths are drill intercept widths and do not represent true thickness. True thickness is not known at this time. Core processing procedure: Reconstruction of block interval and check block numbering Blocks were placed by the driller on the drill site to mark the end of each run. These and the box numbering were checked at the start of the geotechnical logging. Geo-tech The core was reassembled with the bottom marks facing up. The box intervals, RQD, and recovery were recorded in the geotechnical log. Trace core orientation if possible. Bottom marks, which had been made by the drillers, were extended along the rest of the run. Marks between runs were compared and the degree of offset was noted to determine the quality of the bottom mark. Oriented core measurements such as foliation and contacts were taken off these bottom marks. Lithology log and markup The drill core was described in a lithological log, which noted major and minor lithological variations, their intervals, and assigned a lithological classification. Sampling markup Sections of drill core of interest such as spodumene mineralization were marked for sampling and given a sample number. A blank or CRM was inserted every tenth sample for QAQC. Sample widths were typically between 30-200cm. Photograph dry and wet The core boxes were photographed three at a time on an inclined stand with a Pentax K3 DSLR camera and controlled light. They were photographed both wet and dry with consistent camera settings. Box numbering, interval blocks, and sampling markings were all made visible in these photos. Cut samples Sections of drill core marked for sampling were cut in half using an electric core saw. The core was cut at an orientation so as to preserve as much of the geological and marking information as possible. Half the core was taken for sampling and prepared for shipping, while the remaining half was re-photographed along newly exposed cut surface. Laboratory Methods and QA/QC Core samples submitted to SGS Canada Inc. and were prepared by preparation code PRP90. This method includes crushing to 90% passing through 2 millimetres and split with 250 grams being pulverized to 85% passing through 75 micrometres. Sodium peroxide fusion was used on 1 gram of material to obtain a complete digestion of the sample in molten flux and the analysis was finished by GE-ICM90A, a combined ICP-AES and ICP-MS (56 elements). Package GE-ICM90A (GE-IC90A + GE-IC90M). Table 2: Drill hole collar location and orientation for the 2018 drill holes** Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation (m) Azimuth (degrees) Dip (degrees) Length (m) MOY18-04 692934 667108 277 135 45 156 MOY18-05 693082 667048 259 315 45 106 MOY18-06 692934 667108 277 135 63 159 MOY18-07 693082 667048 259 315 75 95 MOY18-08 692924 667003 271 135 45 129 MOY18-10 692875 667012 272 135 45 138 MOY18-09 693011 666969 262 315 45 61 MOY18-11 693167 667131 260 315 45 139 MOY18-12 693099 667176 266 135 45 123 MOY18-13 693069 667192 273 125 50 130 MOY18-14 693069 667192 273 135 50 133 MOY18-15 693216 667163 254 315 45 171 MOY18-16 693265 667230 250 311 46 186 MOY18-17 693141 667225 273 125 75 117 MOY18-18 692855 667018 271 125 60 108 **Numbers have been rounded. Afzaal Pirzada, P. Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and a consultant to the Company, has reviewed and approved the technical content in this news release. About International Lithium Corp. International Lithium Corp. has a significant portfolio of projects, strong management, and a strategic partner and key investor, Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd., ("Ganfeng Lithium") a leading China-based lithium product manufacturer. The Company's primary strategic focus is now on the Mariana project in Argentina and on the Raleigh Lake project in Canada. The Company has a strategic stake in the Mariana lithium-potash brine project located within the renowned South American "Lithium Belt" that is the host to the vast majority of global lithium resources, reserves and production. The Mariana project strategically encompasses an entire mineral rich evaporite basin, totalling 160 square kilometres that ranks as one of the more prospective salars or 'salt lakes' in the region. Current ownership of the project is through a joint venture company, Litio Minera Argentina S. A., a private company registered in Argentina, owned 82.754% by Ganfeng Lithium and 17.246% by ILC. In addition, ILC has an option to acquire 10% in the Mariana project through a back-in right. The Raleigh Lake project, now consisting of 3,027 hectares of adjoining mineral claims in Ontario, is now regarded by ILC management as ILC's most significant project in Canada. It is 100% owned by ILC, is not subject to any encumbrances, and is royalty free. Complementing the Company's lithium brine project at Mariana and rare metal pegmatite property at Raleigh Lake, are interests in two other rare metal pegmatite properties in Ontario, Canada known as the Mavis Lake and Forgan Lake projects, and the Avalonia project in Ireland, which encompasses an extensive 50-km-long pegmatite belt. The ownership of the Mavis Lake project is now 51% Pioneer Resources Limited (ASX:PIO, "Pioneer") and 49% ILC. In addition, ILC owns a 1.5% NSR on Mavis Lake. Pioneer has an option to earn an additional 29% by sole-funding a further CAD $8.5 million expenditures of exploration activities, at which time the ownership will be 80% Pioneer and 20% ILC. The Forgan Lake project will, upon Ultra Lithium meeting its contractual requirements pursuant to its agreement with ILC, become 100% owned by Ultra Lithium, and ILC will retain a 1.5% NSR on Forgan Lake. The ownership of the Avalonia project is currently 55% Ganfeng Lithum and 45% ILC. Ganfeng Lithium has an option to earn an additional 24% by either incurring CAD $10 million expenditures on exploration activities or delivering a positive feasibility study on the project, at which time the ownership will be 79% Ganfeng Lithum and 21% ILC. With the increasing demand for high tech rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles and electrical storage as well as portable electronics, lithium has been designated "the new oil", and is a key part of a "green tech", sustainable economy. By positioning itself with solid strategic partners and projects with significant resource potential, ILC aims to be one of the lithium and battery metals resource developers of choice for investors and to continue to build value for its shareholders. International Lithium Corp.'s mission is to find, explore and develop projects that have the potential to become world class lithium, potash and rare metal deposits. A key goal is to become a well funded company to turn that aspiration into reality. On behalf of the Company, Anthony Kovacs Director and COO www.internationallithium.com For further information concerning this news release please contact +1 604-449-6520 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. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information or forward-looking statements in this or other news releases may include: the effect of results of the preliminary economic assessment of the Mariana Joint Venture Project, timing of publication of the PEA technical report, anticipated production rates, the timing and/or anticipated results of drilling on the Raleigh Lake or Mavis Lake projects, the expectation of feasibility studies, lithium recoveries, modeling of capital and operating costs, results of studies utilizing membrane technology at the Mariana Project, budgeted expenditures and planned exploration work on the Avalonia Joint Venture, satisfactory completion of the sale of mineral rights at Forgan Lake, satisfactory completion of the purchase of additional mineral rights at Raleigh Lake, increased value of shareholder investments, and continued agreement between the Company and Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd. regarding the Company's percentage interest in the Mariana project. Such forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those discussed in the sections entitled "Risks" and "Forward-Looking Statements" in the interim and annual Management's Discussion and Analysis which are available at www.sedar.com. While management believes that the assumptions made are reasonable, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking information. Forward-looking information herein, and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on expectations, estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the time of such statements, are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. These estimates and assumptions may prove to be incorrect and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44035 Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump offered praise for White House aide and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller on Wednesday but pushed back on the notion that Miller is the force behind his tough approach to border security and the ongoing leadership shakeup at the Department of Homeland Secretary. Frankly, there is only one person that is running it. You know who that is? It's me, Trump said, pointing at his head, when asked about the Department of Homeland Security and whether he would ever consider appointing Miller to lead DHS. Even as he pushed back, the president offered warm words for Miller. "Stephen is an excellent guy. He is a wonderful person. People don't know him. He has been with me from the beginning. He is a brilliant man, he said of Miller. The presidents comments come amid reports that Miller has been heavily influencing the presidents decision-making as he has executed top firings at DHS and is looking to crack down on border crossings and make it harder for migrants to apply for asylum. The president did not directly answer a question about whether hes weighing implementing a so-called binary choice policy to allow migrant parents the choice of being separated from their children or submitting to their children remaining in long-term detention with them as their appeals for asylum are being heard in a U.S. immigration court. Trump did, however, blast the nations asylum rules more broadly. I think that the whole asylum rules, laws, and regulations have been taken advantage of by people that are very bad people in many cases. These are the people running the cartels. They are gaming the system, Trump said. President Trump's outgoing DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is set to formally resign Wednesday, after initially submitting her forced resignation on Sunday. The current leader of Customs and Border Protection, Kevin McAleenan, will assume the role of Acting DHS secretary at the president's request. Trump's appointment of McAleenan resulted in another forced resignation of the department's acting deputy, Claire Grady, who was next in line to succeed Nielsen under DHS rules. The administration also announced on Monday that the head of the Secret Service would soon be departing the administration. Trump continued railing against the nation's immigration laws later in the day during an impromptu press spray of a fundraiser in San Antonio, where he said several attendees had been telling him graphic stories about the dire situation on the southern border. For 30 minutes, Trump and the group painted a dark portrait of the dangers of illegal immigration both for the migrants making the trip north and those in communities near the border, and why it justifies Trumps calls for a wall. If we had the wall, the good people will not be able -- you'll see them on the other side of the wall, Trump said. Speaking of ranchers living near the border, the president said, They're told never to leave their house at night. And during the day, always carry a gun and know how to use it. Referring to what one attendee told him, Trump at one point suggested that migrants from the Central American countries are much more dangerous than those from Mexico. People from, you said before, Colombia, and also, you said Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador are much tougher people, much more dangerous people? he asked. At one point, one of the attendees at the table said of some of those who cross the border illegally wear all-black outfits and stand on the porches of people's houses to intimidate them. They've got hoodies on," the unidentified person said. "These are not good guys. Trump also falsely claimed that Democrats are only fighting against his border policies because they want to get votes from those who come into the country illegally. We're represented by Democrats who don't want to hear it, because to them, they will take anybody, they don't care about crime, they just want to get votes, Trump said. They think these will all be votes to them someday, and other reasons. Maybe they want to make the country look bad. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 11, 2019) - KOPR Point Ventures Inc. (CSE: KOPR) (OTC: NPEZF) (FSE: 4NP) ("KOPR Point" or the "Company") offers an exploration update on the Majuba Hill Copper Project. David Greenway comments: "The results of our previously announced re-assay of core from MG1703 have given our technical advisory board the clarity to review previous anomalous drill results around what we are calling the Majuba Extension. The Company now realizes that there is a major opportunity to expand the oxide copper mineralization at Majuba Hill that presents tremendous potential upside for our shareholders. I couldn't be more pleased or excited by what our technical team has done. The implications of what we have discovered in Hole MG 1703 which stepped out 1000 feet are of vital importance. Hole MG 1703 is the "Key-Stone" that allowed us to recognize the significance of the assay results from previous core hole MM-21 which has an interval of substantial copper oxide at the same elevation as the interval in MG 1703 -- 66.9 ft @ 0.71% Cu." Core hole MM-21 was drilled in 2012(1) and using a mining-type intersection calculation (2), with a greater than 0.05% copper cut-off the oxide intersections include: 410 ft to 460 ft - 50 ft@ 0.313% Cu 550 ft to 570 ft - 20 ft @ 0.12% Cu 580 ft to 700 ft - 120 ft @ 0.23% Cu (includes 580 ft to 625 ft - 45 ft @ 0.39% Cu (1) Alan J. Morris MSc, CPG May 31, 2017 NI43-101 Technical Report, Majuba Hill Coper Project, Pershing County Nevada, USA (2) No more than 1 internal "waste" assay less than 0.05% Cu and intersection still has to be at least 0.10%. True width is unknown at this time. Cannot view this image? Visit: https://media.zenfs.com/en-us/newsfile_64/fd68d0c138f951f0e24d16f1c7675c1e To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6332/44031_60575a7f346b798c_002full.jpg The oxide intercept in MM-21 is 300 feet north of the oxide intercept in MG1703. Deeper in the hole the increasing copper-bearing sulfides (chalcopyrite) returned: Story continues 790 ft to 985 ft - 215 ft @ 0.28% Cu (includes 850 ft to 960 ft - 110 ft @ 0.38% Cu with 865 ft to 975 ft-10 ft @ 1.16% Cu) There has been no drilling along the top of the Majuba Extension ridge. This leaves a 600 to 800 foot thick zone between holes MG1703 & MM-21 and Copper oxide sampled near the top of the ridge. This undrilled zone is also directly above the high-grade sulfide intersections in MMX-24. The Company is currently fast-tracking plans for a drill program for 2019. The initial plan is to drill 16-18 holes as part of the ongoing economic evaluation of the surface oxide mineralization and the program will be a mix of Reverse Circulation (RC) and Core. It is anticipated that the total budget for the program (including third party 43-101 modeling) will be $610,000 USD. The drilling will be staged to allow more precise drill locations as the program advances. A significant portion of the drilling being planned will be done on the patented mining claims, which should shorten the permitting timelines. The Company believes that there is a high probability for expanding the currently modeled oxide copper mineralization beyond MG1703 and MM-21. This would result in a much larger mineralized zone of leachable copper close enough to the surface to be considered for an open-pit mining scenario. Sampling for MG1703 was conducted under the supervision of the Company's consulting geologist and the chain of custody from the project to the sample preparation facility was continuously monitored. A blank or certified reference material, was inserted approximately every 24 samples. The samples were delivered to Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories preparation facility in Elko, NV where they were crushed and pulverized. Resulting sample pulps were shipped to Bureau Veritas certified laboratory in Sparks, NV or Vancouver, BC. Pulps were digested using a multi-acid digestion and analyzed for copper and 34 additional elements using ICP-ES. Gold was analyzed using a fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish on a 30-gram split. Data verification of the analytical results included a statistical analysis of the standards and blanks that must pass certain parameters for acceptance to insure accurate and verifiable results. E.L. "Buster" Hunsaker III, CPG, Chairman of the Company's Advisory Board, is the Qualified Person who has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release on behalf of the Company. About KOPR Point Ventures Inc. KOPR Point (CSE: KOPR) (OTC: NPEZF) (FSE: 4NP) is engaged in the identification, review and acquisition of latter stage Copper and Copper/Gold assets. Management has been mandated to focus on geo-politically safe and stable regimes with mining friendly jurisdictions and government regulations supportive of mining operations. On Behalf of the Board of KOPR Point Ventures "David Greenway" President & CEO Corporate Office 310-221 West Esplanade North Vancouver, BC V7M 3J3 For further information, please contact: E: dg@KOPRpoint.com P: (604) 318-0114 Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44031 North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 11, 2019) - Lion One Metals Limited (TSXV: LIO) (FSE: LY1) (OTCQX: LOMLF) (ASX: LLO) ("Lion One" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has agreed to sell its interests in the Olary Creek magnetite project in South Australia including its 51% tenement interest, a 47% interest in iron ore and manganese rights, and a 100% interest in other commodities. Lion One considers this sale as a means to realise value from this non-core asset. Lion One will receive payments at certain stages during the course of time including: 10% of all funds raised by the purchaser be paid to Lion One until funding specifically designated as funding for a Bankable Feasibility Study has been raised A$1 million to be paid to upon funding designated for a Bankable Feasibility Study A$3 million to be paid upon a Decision to Mine A$3 million to be paid 18 months after a Decision to Mine Additionally, and importantly, Lion One will retain a royalty of 1% FOB plus A$0.75 per tonne sold, or a 2% FOB royalty, on all iron ore or manganese concentrates extracted and sold from the Olary Creek tenement. This agreement has the potential to deliver considerable future income to the Company through this royalty stream. The Olary Creek project currently contains a JORC and 43-101 compliant resource of 510 million tonnes of high grade magnetite with low impurities, but the Company considers only about 35% of the 7.5km highly magnetic mineralized target has been drilled to date. The purchasing group consists of two companies owned by Australian mining entrepreneur Gordon Toll, Lodestone Equities Limited and its subsidiary Olary Magnetite Pty Ltd, (collectively known as the Lodestone Group "LG"). Both companies and the Olary Creek project now form part of South Australia's Braemar Bulk Export Project, a A$5 billion infrastructure corridor designed to transport magnetite concentrates from South Australia's Braemar region to offshore loading and storage facilities near Adelaide, for shipment to steel manufacturers in Asia. Mr. Toll is the former Chairman of the Fortescue Metals Group. Story continues Additional information about these companies may be accessed at the following website: http://braemarinfrastructure.com/affiliated-companies. Lion One signed a Joint Venture agreement with China's Henan Yukuang in July 2013 for the exploration and development of the Olary Creek project, acquiring in the process a 22% participating interest, a 25% interest free carried to the completion of a feasibility study and decision to mine, and the option of, following completion of a feasibility study and within 90 days of a decision to mine, an option to either contribute to its proportional share of development expenditures, or convert its 25% interest to a 2% FOB royalty, or convert to a 1% FOB royalty with a $0.50 per tonne production royalty. Henan Yukuang is an affiliated enterprise of the Henan Provincial Bureau of Geo-exploration and Mineral Development, a state-owned mining and mineral exploration company with corporate headquarters in Zhengzhou, Peoples' Republic of China. Yukuang earned a 53% interest in the Project's iron rights through a farm-in agreement with Lion One Australia Pty Ltd. Total joint venture expenditures to date exceed A$7 million. The original joint venture for the Olary Creek Project was formed in 2010 between Avocet Resources and Perth-based HJH Nominees ("HJH"). In 2011 HJH signed a farm-in agreement with Henan to earn a 53% interest. In April 2012 the HJH/Henan partnership reached the $5,000,000 expenditure requirement for a combined 75% interest in the project with Avocet retaining a 25% interest. In July 2013 Avocet exercised its pre-emptive rights and acquired the 22% interest held by HJH for a 0.5% FOB royalty and negotiated new Farm-in, Joint Venture, and Split Commodity Agreements with Henan. Lion One acquired its interests in the Olary Creek project through the completion of its merger with Avocet Resources in June 2013. Lion One has notified its current Joint Venture partner, Yukuang of its agreement to sell its interest in the project. Yukuang has a pre-emptive right, and has 45 days to inform Lion One whether it will exercise this right. Olary Creek Overview The Olary Creek Project (exploration license 5928) is located in South Australia 70 km southwest of Broken Hill, NSW, and 40 km south of the Barrier Highway. To the north of the area is an open access railway with direct routes to major capital cities and ports. The property is considered prospective for a range of commodities having previously been drilled for uranium and copper, and subsequently magnetite. The project contains several units of the Braemar Iron Formation, which are highly prospective for bulk magnetite deposits and is one of Australia's emerging major iron ore exploration regions. Over 16,000 meters of diamond and RC drilling has been carried out by the joint venture parties to test zones of outcropping iron mineralization that extend along 7.5 kilometers of strike and have been observed to improve in grade and thickness with depth. Table 1: Summary of Olary Iron Project Resource Estimate using cutoff grade of 20% Fe Olary Iron Project Resource Estimate Summary Category Tonnage Fe % SIO2% Al2O3% LOI% S% P% DTR% Density Indicated 214,000,000 26.3 40.8 6.9 3.9 0.029 0.24 26.4 3.12 Inferred 296,000,000 26.4 41.3 6.9 3.7 0.027 0.25 27.3 3.10 Table 2: Davis Tube Recovery (DTR) test results and Fe content for the magnetic concentrate for composite RC and Diamond drill hole samples at grind size of 38 microns and 10% DTR cut-off grade Category Concentrate Tonnage DTR Concentrate Grades Fe % SIO2% Al2O3% LOI% S% P% Indicated 57,000,000 69.6 2.9 0.3 -3.1 0.008 0.01 Inferred 81,000,000 69.8 2.6 0.2 -3.1 0.009 0.008 For additional information on the project including the technical report and resource estimate entitled Olary Creek Iron Project (NI 43-101) by SRK and dated Aug. 20, 2014 please visit the Company website at www.liononemetals.com. Qualified Persons Stephen Mann P. Geo, Managing Director, is a "Qualified Person" as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information included in this News Release. About Lion One Metals Limited Lion One Metals Limited is a Canadian exploration and development company focused on the exploration and development of its 100% owned and fully permitted Tuvatu Gold Project in Fiji. Lion One envisions a low-cost high grade underground gold mining operation with district-scale exploration upside, located near the Nadi International Airport on the island of Viti Levu in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Lion One Metals Limited's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Lion One Metals Limited and on assumptions Lion One Metals Limited believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, the actual results of exploration projects being equivalent to or better than estimated results in technical reports, assessment reports, and other geological reports or prior exploration results. 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 Lion One Metals Limited or its subsidiaries to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the early stage development of Lion One Metals Limited, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current research and development or operational activities; competition; uncertainty as to patent applications and intellectual property rights; product liability and lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting mining, timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; not realizing on the potential benefits of technology; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. Although Lion One Metals Limited 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. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Lion One Metals Limited does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Lion One Metals Limited "Walter Berukoff", Chairman and CEO Contact Investor Relations Toll Free (North America) Tel: 1-855-805-1250 Email: info@liononemetals.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Corporate Logo To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44037 Medtronic plc. MDT recently made a major development in the field of diabetes management. The company reached an outcome-based agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota in relation to the companys Guardian Connect smart Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) system. Per the terms of the deal, the members of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota plan, who are diabetic patients, will have better access to the Guardian Connect. The Deal at a Glance Medtronic noted that the Guardian Connectsystem will now be available through a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota member's pharmacy benefit. Per the report, under this contract, the value-based payment of using the Guardian Connect system will depend on the amount of time spent on a healthy glucose range. The key metric to be considered here is Time in Range (TIR), a standard measurement in diabetes management that tracks the amount of time a person's glucose staysin the target range (considering 70-180 mg/dL as the standard range). In other words, according to an article published in Cardiovascular Business, if the Guardian Connect CGM system fails to keep the patients blood sugar levels within a specified range, the company will pay back the insurer. Such a move claims to improve the speed of delivery and lower costs for members, who use the device. This apart, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota members, who are on the Guardian Connect system or the MiniMed 670G insulin pump system, will be able to participate in Medtronics patient engagement program known as Inner Circle. How the Deal is Strategic Fit Medtronic is highly optimistic about its first value-based partnership with a health plan. This alliance is expected to lend Medtronics CGM business a significant boost with a large patient base of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Medtronic Guardian Connect So Far In 2018, Medtronic announced the receipt of an FDA approval for the Guardian Connect CGM system pertaining to the diabetes patients aged between 14 and 75 years. This is thefirst and the only standalone CGM system to help diabetes patients be wary of the potentially high or low-level glucose events up to 60 minutes in advance. Story continues Around the same time, the company announced that the regulatory body approved a new arm indication for the Guardian Sensor 3 CGM, which is used alongside the MiniMed 670G insulin pump. Since its launch, the Guardian Connect system has successfully demonstrated a strong customer adoption. During the last reported quarter, CGM as a category surged more than 30%. Guardian Connect registered third consecutive quarter of triple-digit growth. Huge Potential in Diabetes Management Market Ageing population, unhealthy lifestyle, rising awareness and higher expenditure in healthcare are likely to drive the highly competitive diabetes market. Per a report by Mordor Intelligence, the global market for diabetes care devices is projected to reach a value of $30.25 billion by 2021 at a CAGR of 5.93%. Considering this bullish market trend, we believe that the latest development is a strategic fit for the company. Stock Performance Over the past three months, shares of Medtronic have underperformed its industry. The stock has returned 4.5% compared with the industrys 12% growth. Zacks Ranks and Key Picks Medtronic currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Stryker Corporation SYK, Penumbra, Inc. PEN and Amedisys, Inc AMED, each stock currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Strykers long-term earnings growth rate is projected at 10% Penumbras long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 20.9%. Amedisyss long-term earnings growth rate is expected at 19.7%. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year? Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. See Latest Stocks Today >> 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 Penumbra, Inc. (PEN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Stryker Corporation (SYK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Medtronic PLC (MDT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Amedisys, Inc. (AMED) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Lee Min-hyung A district office in Seoul has revoked permission for Japan to construct a new embassy building in the city, as the latter delayed the construction without any notification. According to Jongno-gu Office in central Seoul, the construction permission has been canceled as of March 4, about four years after the office granted permission for the project in 2015. "The district office called on the Japanese embassy to start construction earlier this year, but the embassy did not kick off the project, citing circumstances from its home country," an official from the district office said. The embassy did not specify why it had not started construction there. Observers raise speculation that the embassy's decision has to do with the frayed diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo over a series of historical disputes in recent years. A Korean civic group installed a memorial statue for "comfort women" in 2011 across the street from the former Japanese embassy building. The comfort women were mobilized as wartime sex slaves during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea. The Japanese government urged Korea to remove the statue, and the clash between both sides aggravated diplomatic relations between the two over the years. Every Wednesday, a group of activists from the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan also stage a rally outside the former Japanese embassy, urging Tokyo to make sincere apologies for its wartime atrocities regarding comfort women. As the regular rally takes place near the former embassy building, critics argue the Japanese government may have felt a burden before breaking ground on the new office. Mike Pence, facing criticism from 2020 Democratic hopeful Pete Buttigieg over his record on gay rights, says South Bend mayor 'knows better' Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg "knows better" days after the South Bend, Indiana, mayor made waves by critiquing Pence's record on LGBT equality. "He said some things that are critical of my Christian faith and about me personally. And he knows better. He knows me," said Pence, who served as governor of Indiana when Buttigieg came out as gay during his re-election campaign for mayor. "I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand, that if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me," Buttigieg has said. "Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator." Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg "knows better" days after the South Bend, Indiana, mayor made waves by critiquing Pence's record on LGBT equality. "He said some things that are critical of my Christian faith and about me personally. And he knows better. He knows me," said Pence, who served as governor of Indiana when Buttigieg came out as gay during his reelection campaign for mayor. The vice president's comments came during an interview with Joe Kernen on CNBC's " Squawk Box " that will air at 6 a.m. ET on Thursday morning. "But I get it. You know, it's look, again, 19 people running for president on that side in a party that's sliding off to the left. And they're all competing with one another for how much more liberal they are," Pence said. Pence was responding to comments that Buttigieg, who is expected to officially launch his campaign for president Sunday, made over the weekend during an event hosted by the LGBTQ Victory Fund. "I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand, that if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me," Buttigieg said. "Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator." Buttigieg has skyrocketed to the front of the Democratic pack since announcing the formation of an exploratory committee in late January. Buttigieg, an Afghanistan war veteran, has said that his marriage to his husband has brought him closer to God. Story continues Pence has faced scrutiny from LGBT activist groups over his opposition to gay marriage and his support, while governor, for a "religious freedom" bill that opponents said targeted gays and lesbians. Business groups including the Indiana Chamber of Commerce had opposed the measure. Pence signed the bill shortly before Buttigieg came out. The former governor, who President Donald Trump once reportedly joked " wants to hang them all ," referring to gay people, said Wednesday that he stood by his view of marriage. "But that doesn't mean that we're we're critical of anyone else who has a different point of view," he said. Pence said that as governor, he "worked very closely with Mayor Pete" and that they "had a great working relationship." He noted that, as governor of Indiana, he implemented the Supreme Court's decision that made gay marriage the law of the land. When reached for comment on Pence's remarks, a representative for Buttigieg's campaign referred CNBC to the candidate's previous statements. Buttigieg, apparently responding to similar comments that Pence made in 2015, wrote in a post on Twitter this week that people "will often be polite to you in person, while advancing policies that harm you and your family." "You will be polite to them in turn, but you need not stand for such harms. Instead, you push back, honestly and emphatically. So it goes, in the public square," Buttigieg wrote. Buttigieg tweet Read the full exchange: Mike Pence: Well, look, I worked very closely with Mayor Pete when I was governor of the state of Indiana. We had a great working relationship. And he said some things that are critical of my Christian faith and about me personally, and he knows better. He knows me. But I get. You know, it's look, they got 19 people running for president on that side Joe Kernen: Have you evolved at all Pence: in a party that is sliding off to the left Kernen: I agree. Pence: And they're all competing with one another for how much more liberal they are than the other. So, I get that. Kernen: But, Mr. Vice President, since the year 2000, have you the country has evolved, to some extent, I think, on marriage equality, on gay rights. Have you would you say your views have evolved at all since then? Pence: Look, the Supreme Court has made their decision. Kernen: So you accept it as law? Pence: And when I was governor of Indiana, we fully implemented that decision in the law. But, Joe, I have my Christian values. My family and I have a view of marriage that's informed by our faith. And we stand by that. But that doesn't mean that we're critical of anyone else who has a different point of view. More From CNBC FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders poses with a A220-300 Airbus replica during the company's annual news conference on 2018 full-year results in Blagnac, near Toulouse, France, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo By Tim Hepher PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus dismissed more than 100 people and issued more than 300 warnings for ethics or compliance reasons in 2018, two people familiar with the company data said, as it conducts a wide-ranging internal crackdown and deals with outside fraud probes. The aerospace group is being investigated by UK and French authorities over suspected corruption dating back over a decade and is in the fifth year of a sweeping internal probe designed to improve its chances of winning favorable settlements. An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on the figures or give annual comparisons. The dismissals coincided with a sharp increase in the use of an internal whistleblower system, providing a guide to the trend on compliance issues. Complaints handled by the system almost doubled last year and mostly involved matters covered by ordinary employment law. The service also handled close to 40 allegations of fraud and half a dozen accusations of bribery. More than 10 of the reported cases involved suspected breaches of export controls, the two people said. Airbus declined to comment. The company, which employs around 130,000 people worldwide, is under investigation in the United States over suspected violations of export controls and U.S. officials have also kept a close watch on the European bribery probes. The figures emerged on the eve of a shareholder meeting as some investors worry about Airbus's exposure to potential fines, which analysts say could run to several billion dollars. "Airbus shareholders are still waiting for a full disclosure on the allegations of bribery and corruption cases of the past. For the future, Airbus (has) enhanced compliance standards to prevent further incidents and the company seems to be on the right track," Frankfurt-based fund manager DWS said. Chief Executive Tom Enders has said Airbus has had to handle management turnover at the same time as a wave of scheduled retirements and acknowledged 2018 had been tough. "I am today much more optimistic about the company managing these difficult issues than frankly I would have been a year ago," he told a Feb. 14 news conference. Story continues LAWYER FEES Airbus is spending more than 100 million euros ($113 million) a year on lawyers to investigate staff to help win a prosecution settlement in Britain and France over the fraud allegations resulting from a system of middlemen it says it abandoned in 2014. It was not clear how many of the dismissals resulted from this drive. A British judge said in 2017 that companies must present a radically new face and significant co-operation in rooting out their own violations to win a settlement and avoid charges. The internal probe has led to growing complaints among staff of a witch hunt, people who deal with the company say. Help lines handled around 80 cases of alleged moral harassment, the company data shows. Industry sources say the internal probe has had a dampening effect on Airbus sales, which slumped last year. Several executives are expected to join a wave of senior departures despite not facing specific accusations, the people said. Airbus declined to comment. Staff malaise turned to anger when it was reported last week that Enders retires on Wednesday with a total retirement package of almost 40 million euros over 20 years. Enders and other individuals are under investigation over the sale of fighters to Austria and has denied wrongdoing. The Airbus spokesman defended the pension package, which is expected to be raised at an annual meeting on Wednesday. "There is no golden, silver or bronze parachute. These are contractual obligations that were agreed many years ago." Enders is credited with unifying a once fragmented company and improving governance but leaves amid disagreement over his strategy for handling the compliance campaign. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Mark Potter) (Corrects name of South Korean President Moon Jae-in in paragraph 9) By Joyce Lee SEOUL, April 11 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country needs to deliver a "telling blow" to those imposing sanctions by ensuring its economy is more self-reliant, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday. It was the first time Kim stated North Korea's position on the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi that collapsed in February, and signalled a continued focus on economic development, a strategic direction officially declared a priority last April. On North Korea's position on the summit, Kim said he would double down on efforts to create a self-supporting national economy "so as to deal a telling blow to the hostile forces who go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring (North Korea) to its knees," according to KCNA. U.S.-North Korean engagement has appeared to be in limbo since the Feb. 27-28 summit in Hanoi, which collapsed over differences about how far North Korea was willing to limit its nuclear programme and the degree of U.S. willingness to ease economic sanctions. Kim has continued to highlight his economic push in recent weeks despite the lack of sanctions relief. State media have published images and reports of Kim's visits to at least four economic projects in five days over the past week, including a remodelled department store, tourist resorts, and an economic hub near the border with China. At a similar plenary session last year, Kim formally announced a "new strategic line" that focused on economic progress and improving North Koreans' lives, rather than the previous two-pronged approach of economic and nuclear weapons development. Despite not explicitly naming the "hostile forces" that imposed sanctions, Kim is displaying a more hardened stance toward Washington than was recently in state media, analysts said. The comments were reported hours ahead of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Washington on Thursday to discuss North Korea and other alliance issues. Story continues Moon has suggested that sanctions could be eased to allow inter-Korean economic engagement in return for some nuclear concessions by North Korea, but so far Washington has not agreed. "It did not directly mention the U.S., but linked sanctions with hostile forces," said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. "He's saying North Korea would take an independent course unless the U.S. offered to lift sanctions. You maintain sanctions, you're a hostile force; if you ease sanctions, you're not." North Korea is expected to convene a session of its rubber-stamp legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly, on Thursday. (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Josh Smith Editing by Leslie Adler & Kim Coghill) By Nichola Saminather TORONTO, April 11 (Reuters) - Newmont Mining shareholders supported the company's $10 billion takeover of Goldcorp Inc on Thursday, creating the world's biggest gold producer with assets across the Americas, Africa and Australia. About 98 percent of votes at a special meeting supported Newmont's proposal to issue new stock to fund its takeover of Goldcorp, the Denver-based company said in an e-mailed statement. Toronto-based Goldcorp's investors voted to approve the acquisition last week. (Reporting By Nichola Saminather Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind an oil pump outside Saint-Fiacre, near Paris, France March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo By Jessica Resnick-Ault NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Thursday after sources said OPEC may raise output from July if Venezuelan and Iranian supplies fall further and prices keep rallying. Rising U.S. crude stockpiles also dragged U.S. futures down by more than $1 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $1.03 to settle at $63.58 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent settled at $70.83 a barrel, down 90 cents. "Now there is a suggestion that OPEC may surprise us and raise production pre-emptively if we get a price spike," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may raise oil output from July if Venezuelan and Iranian supply drops further and prices keep rallying, because extending production cuts with Russia and other allies could overtighten the market, sources familiar with the matter said. Venezuelan crude production has dropped below 1 million barrels per day (bpd) due to U.S. sanctions, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, even below the 960,000 bpd OPEC reported on Wednesday. Iranian supply could fall further after May if, as many expect, Washington tightens its sanctions against Tehran. OPEC and its allies led by Russia are due to meet in Vienna on June 25-26 to set their policy. Overall output from OPEC, which has agreed with allies to withhold 1.2 million bpd of crude from the market since the start of 2019, fell 550,000 bpd in March to 30.1 million bpd, the IEA said. The agency, which coordinates the energy policies of developed nations, saw oil stocks in industrialized countries fall in February by 21.7 million barrels, putting inventories 16 million barrels above their five-year average. Graphic:U.S. oil production, storage & drilling levels, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2HWNIqK Market concerns that OPEC could increase output compounded worries that U.S. crude production is rising. U.S. crude inventories surged by 7 million barrels to a 17-month high of 456.6 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. U.S. crude oil production remained at a record 12.2 million bpd, making the United States the world's biggest oil producer ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia. Story continues The surging production and regional refinery outages have depressed prices of cash grades, putting more pressure on U.S. crude, said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude at Midland on Thursday traded at the biggest discount to futures in almost four months after Phillips 66 closed a unit for maintenance at its Borger, Texas refinery, adding to a backlog of barrels as production climbs. Graphic:Venezuela Oil Production png, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2IavKRz Selling accelerated Thursday morning as U.S. crude dropped below $63.71 a barrel, a technically significant level at which some funds had stops in place, triggering automatic sales, Yawger said. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Kirsten Donovan and Richard Chang) It ranks as one of the more anxiety-provoking workplace moments: Negotiating your salary/raise/bonus. But what if your company opted to do something a bit more radical when it comes to employee compensation? Enter the Open Salary approach. The concept started getting buzz when social media marketing firm Buffer introduced it back in 2013. What is it? Basically, the open salary policy puts transparency first when it comes to salary info. At Buffer, they use a simple (and public) formula to calculate their staffs pay, then share every single persons salarywhether youre an entry-level hire or CEOwith the team. (The pay-off, they say, is that it encourages trust, but also eliminates hiring biasesa win-win.) Fast forward to 2019 and more and more companies are following suit. Glassdoor recently published a list of 18 businesses around the country with salary info you can see before applying, and major brandsWhole Foods includedare opting to share employee compensation, which was previously top-secret info, internally with the entire team. But is it a good idea? We did a little research and asked a variety of career experts to sound off on the perksand sometimes emotional-charged pitfallsof adopting this approach. Heres what we found. Salary Transparency Can Ease Overall Anxiety When Buffer pulled the curtain back on their formula for calculating salaries, their mission was clear: to eliminate financial bias in the workplace. But the benefits of an open salary policy go far beyond that. Research published by Tel Aviv University in Israel demonstrates that an open salary policy at work can make employees more productive and help them feel more satisfied, mainly because theyre not wasting time worrying about what their colleagues are making and also have a clear financial trajectory to aspire to. That kind of transparency is not just a motivator, it can drive employees to set and achieve their goals, says Dr. Natalia Peart, a psychologist and the author of FutureProofed: How to Navigate Disruptive Change, Find Calm in Chaos and Succeed in Work & Life. It also eliminates the need for salary negotiations, which can often put women at a disadvantage if theyre reluctant to negotiate or tend to appear less likeable when they do. Story continues Theres also the emotional aspect: The salaries we imagine our colleagues are taking home can be highly inaccurate. When people dont know each others pay, they assume they are underpaid, Peart says. But if they are able to compare their salary, they might realize theyre being paid appropriately and spend less time worrying or feeling dissatisfied. But There Are Still Some Residual Trade-Offs The best advice a mentor gave to me: You should be willing to put all the salary data on your companys refrigerator door, says Charlie Javice, founder of Frank, a service that helps students decode the complicated financial aid process. That said, even if you can, dont do it. In other words, while accountability is key when it comes to bias in the workplace, per Javice, pay is also sensitive. You dont want it to be a topic of conversation or something that becomes the only motivation, she explains. Another deterrent, says Javice: Often times an employers number one goal is to attract and retain employees and incentivize them to be their most productive. An open salary policyand specifically a formulaic approach to paymay get in the way of that effort. A formula doesnt work in a lot of cases because hiring goals and the job market change fast, she counters. For example, your company may prioritize the time it takes to fill a position because you need an employee now. In that situation, as a hiring manager, youre more willing to pay up. But if you have time and there is a ton of talent for a specific role, you can wait and offer a lower base salary and higher incentives to test talent before committing. Theres also the human side to consider when it comes to negotiating an employees comp. An example from Javice: Say, youre a new parent and youve requested a higher base salary and are taking a cut on your bonus to compensate. Those are special circumstances that dont fit a formula or financial mold. Maybe the Argument Should Be Why a Salary Is Instead of What a Salary Is Employees generally want more information when it comes to how they are being paid in comparison to others and refer to websites like GlassDoor and PayScale to get it, Peart says. If a company chooses not to disclose pay info, they run the risk of that information leaking anyway, which can lead to serious employee demoralization if salaries arent considered fair or its not handled well. This, she adds, is where the distinction comes in. When it comes to the emotional health of employees, its not just about knowing the salaries of others; its about knowing that there is a sense of fairness. And revealing that info without an explanation of how pay decisions get made or why certain employees are paid more or less could severely backfire and exacerbateversus helpcompany morale. Information without any context can be really harmful, she says. Thats why its important to give more information about why the pay is different for different jobs. Lauren McGoodwin, founder and CEO of Career Contessa, explains this further: If companies are going to commit to disclosing salaries, they should also be doing their diligence by figuring out why these figures exist. A manager shouldnt earn X salary just because. Its about being thoughtful on an organizational levelcompanies should set up standard rates for positions, bonus structures and a navigable promotion strategy. Empowering and incentivizing employees will increase loyalty and longevity. In Javices opinion, life isnt fair, so its hard to say that a formula for calculating salaries will work 100 percent of the time. Instead, she advocates for pulling back the veil on bonus structures. Bonus structures should be transparent to all so that everyone understands the company goals and is in it together, she says. That leaves awkwardness at the door and gives way to healthy competition. Peart offers an alternative solution: A partial open salary policy. This is a chance for companies to share the broad parameters of compensation, like average pay, or even pay ranges for each position, without needing to disclose everyones individual salaries, she explains. For employees, knowing how their salary is determined goes a long way in knowing their pay is fair. This way they know exactly how pay is determined and how they can make more. If people know how they can advance in an organization, they can think more clearly about their career and harness the power they need to achieve their goals. McGoodwin adds: In my opinion, there is tremendous value to an open door salary policy. Money has been a taboo and uncomfortable subject for too long. When we shroud things like salary in secret, it allows for a huge imbalance to exist. RELATED: Advice from Successful Career Women on How to Negotiate Your Salary I owed the IRS after making this tax mistake in college College students who worked part time could face a surprise tax bill if they didnt withhold for taxes. Employees must pay a 7.65% payroll tax to cover Social Security and Medicare. Independent contractors are on the hook for the 15.3% self-employment tax. Generally, single dependents have to file a 2018 return if their unearned income exceeded $1,050 or their earned income was more than $12,000. I've been filing taxes since I was in high school. But during my junior year in college in the fall of 2017, I received something strange in the mail: a 1099-MISC form , a tax document that details payments made to independent contractors. This slip of paper broke out the details on the $1,500 I earned during an internship at a local newspaper in Champaign, Illinois, that summer. The IRS also had a surprise in store when I filed during the spring of 2018: a tax bill of nearly $200. It was a tough personal finance lesson, and I'm probably not the first to learn it. College students nabbing their first gigs as interns or seasonal workers likely don't know that the IRS needs to take its cut of their earnings. If student workers aren't planning for taxes, they're also more likely to be unprepared when the taxman sends them a bill. This is especially the case if they are paid in one lump sum with no taxes withheld. "For a college sophomore or a college senior, having these conversations about money can be uncomfortable," said Sean Stein Smith, a CPA and member of the American Institute of CPAs' Financial Literacy Commission. Although awkward, it's important to start now in order to save yourself the stress later on. 'Pretty crushing' Kini Allen posted on Twitter about her son having to pay taxes for an internship required by his college. Allen said her son, who has worked part-time jobs before, was focused on getting an interesting internship that paid and fulfilled his graduation requirement. When it came time to file taxes this February, Allen said the results were "pretty crushing." Story continues "They either didn't fully explain the implications or he didn't know enough to understand them," she said. "He's a bright kid but wouldn't have known to ask if he'd be paid as independent contractor," Allen said. "Or if they mentioned that he'd get a 1099, he wouldn't know to ask." W-2 vs. 1099 The amount of tax you'll pay on your income will depend on whether you're working as an independent contractor or as an employee. Employees, who have annual wages and taxes withheld, are responsible for a 7.65% payroll tax to fund Social Security and Medicare. Employers kick in another 7.65% to cover their share. Independent contractors are responsible for self-employment taxes, which add up to 15.3%. This tax has two parts: 12.4% goes to Social Security and 2.9% goes toward Medicare. Workers also have different ways to pay these taxes, based on their classification. For instance, employers are responsible for withholding taxes from their employees' wages. This way, workers pay their income and payroll taxes over the course of the year. On the other hand, independent contractors generally pay estimated taxes every quarter. There is an exception for self-employed people who will owe only a small amount to the IRS. "Generally speaking, individuals who expect to owe less than $1,000 in taxes after taking into account federal income tax are exempt from the quarterly income tax requirement," Smith said. As for international students who come to the U.S. for school, their student visa will allow them to spend substantial time stateside without being subject to tax on their worldwide earnings, according to Katelynn Minott, a CPA with BrightTax. However, because they might have a part-time job as a student, that income is considered U.S.-sourced and would be subject to taxes, she said. Do I have to file? Whether you are required to submit a tax return depends on your filing status and your gross income . Single filers who are under 65 must file a 2018 return if their gross income was at least $12,000. The income threshold is a little higher $13,600 for singles who are 65 and up. Married couples who file jointly are required to submit a 2018 return if their gross income was at least $24,000. If one spouse is at least 65, that minimum income threshold goes up to $25,300. The number is even higher if both are 65 and up: $26,600. More from Invest in You: How to take advantage of low mortgage rates Baby boomers face a retirement crisis Burnish your adulting skills so you can live like a grown-up Finally, single dependents who are under 65 and aren't blind are required to submit a 2018 tax return if they had unearned income (taxable interest and capital gains, for instance) over $1,050, or if their earned income (salaries, wages and taxable scholarships and fellowships) exceeded $12,000. These dependents are also required to file if their gross income exceeded the larger of $1,050 or their earned income (up to $11,650), plus $350. Even if you're not required to file, it might pay to do so. That's because you might be eligible for a tax refund or other benefits, including the earned income tax credit . Head off trouble Have an upfront conversation with your employer at the start of your internship or seasonal gig to determine whether you're an independent contractor or an employee. In other words, find out whether you are responsible for paying your taxes on your own, or will they be withheld from your paycheck. "There is no right or wrong answer in this case, but this is something any new hire should be aware [of] from the start," said Smith. It's also important to ask your employer for the details on compensation. How often are you being paid? Where can you access your payroll data? Smith recommended verifying your payroll information, whether through an online portal or with a human resources professional. If anything looks strange, bring it up as soon as possible. "Paying taxes for the first time can seem complicated," Smith said. "It can seem like a high-pressure event. "If you're on top of it and start early, you'll be fine." Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns. More From CNBC Plug Power Inc. PLUG announced that it has entered into an agreement with Lipari Foods to strengthen its expanding customer base. Plug Power will supply GenDrive fuel cells and provide GenFuel hydrogen fueling station solutions to power electric material handling vehicles at the Lipari Foods campus in Warren, MI. Via this agreement, Lipari Foods expands Plug Powers illustrious customer base that includes Amazon.com AMZN and Walmart Inc. WMT, among others. Plug Powers zero-emission hydrogen fuel cells (HFCs) are admired by its clients for their ability to easily scale, maximize the utilization of equipment and increase productivity of its operators. How GenDrive Fuel Cells Help Lipari Foods? Lipari Foods continues to expand business. Furthermore, the requirement of energy is expanding. To date, Lipari Foods had to load up all their pallet jackets on twelve 53-foot trailers and ship these to another warehouse to charge every day. However, the fast-fueling characteristic of Plug Powers space-efficient HFCs allows Lipari Foods to double the usage of its material handling fleet. Additionally, Lipari Foods will no longer incur the additional cost for charging. Rising Usage of Electric Vehicles IDTechEx Market Research predicts that the global electric vehicle (EV) market is expected to touch nearly $350 billion by 2025. Plug Power is poised to gain from the rising demand for electric vehicles as its GenDrive fuel cells are highly adaptable across a range of energy needs from different types of vehicles. Its capabilities in system integration, service support and fueling solutions will allow it to expand services in the EV market. Popularity of Fuel Cells is Increasing The ability of fuel cells to produce energy from hydrogen without creating pollution is driving its demand. Fuel Cell technology is witnessing higher adoption in trains, trams, transit buses, commercial trucks and marine vessels. Per REASERCH AND MARKETS, the fuel cell market is expected to reach $13.83 billion by 2023 from $3.114 billion in 2017. The rising demand for fuel cell will create more opportunity for other operators in the same space like Ballard Power Systems BLDP, which recently signed an agreement to supply modules to Norway. Zacks Rank & Price Movement Plug Power currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Plug Power has outperformed its industry in the past year. The companys shares have gained 42.8% against its industrys decline of 5.1%. Story continues Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. Theyre also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases. Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +98%, +119% and +164% in as little as 1 month. The stocks in this report could perform even better. See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>> 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 Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ballard Power Systems, Inc. (BLDP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Plug Power, Inc. (PLUG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Walmart Inc. (WMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research A closely divided Harris County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 last night to appoint someone else to the technically vacant judgeship occupied until that moment by Bill McLeod. See Judge Accidentally Resigns (Apr. 4) and Judges Supporters Say the Texas Constitution Sucks (Apr. 9). I had expected them to just not do anything, based on case law suggesting to me that doing nothing would allow everybody to just ignore the mistake at least until the next special election in 2020. McLeods four-year term wouldnt expire until 2022, and technically he could just stay put until then (according to me). But requiring him to run in the next special election (if not calling an immediate special election) seemed like a reasonable response to what most would agree was a reasonable mistake. Nope. After a seven-hour meeting in which many people showed up to support McLeod, the group voted to appoint Houston lawyer Lesley Briones to the judgeship through next year. The rationale given was that it was too risky to let McLeod stay until 2020 because he would likely have to recuse himself from any cases to which the county was a party, given that under the circumstances the county would effectively have the power to remove him at any time. That would make sense if McLeod were the only judge in Harris County (thats where Houston is), but in fact there are lots. If he had to recuse himself from a few cases between now and 2020, that doesnt seem like a big deal. I therefore wondered if this might have been a party-line vote, and it looks like it was, but if so the alignment was the opposite of what we have come to expect. McLeod is a Democrat, and so were all three of the commissioners who voted to appoint Briones (whose name had not been circulated beforehand). So, an odd result. I have not seen any negative comments at all about McLeod, apart from the whole business about not knowing the state constitution boots you out of office if you announce youre running for another office. And that does seem like a reasonable mistake to makehes not the first one to make it, after all. (Also, the Texas constitution does suck.) The commissioners could have appointed him as his own replacement, or just done nothing. In fact, I think it could be argued that appointing a replacement instead of having a special election is unconstitutional. McLeod has said hes not going to challenge the decision in court, though, which is probably for the best. By the time that was decided, itd probably be time for the 2020 special election anyway. In which, of course, McLeod will be eligible to run, and could very possibly win, just as he would almost certainly have won a snap special election today (if they have those). That would mean the voters the provision is presumably intended to protect would have declared they didnt need the protection. All of which makes the whole situation indisputably strange. Broward Circuit Judge Dennis Bailey. Photo: Melanie bell/ALM. Broward Circuit Judge Dennis Bailey. Photo: Melanie Bell/ALM. Broward Circuit Judge Dennis Bailey will receive a public reprimand after violating five canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct by mistreating two attorneys in a felony criminal trial, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in a per curiam opinion Thursday. The Judicial Qualifications Commission brought ethics charges against Bailey in December 2018, accusing him of being intemperate with Fort Lauderdale public defenders Gustavo Javier Martinez and James Allen Foretich when presiding over State v. Genesis Espejo. The JQC's investigative panel found Bailey got frustrated with the lawyers as they tried to argue the same objection in a sidebar conference. When one of the attorneys tried to help his colleague articulate a point during the sidebar, Judge Bailey repeatedly attempted to quiet him by saying, One lawyer at a time, Only one lawyer argues, followed shortly thereafter by, You have a hard time understanding me? Two lawyers cant argue one argument, JQC Chair Krista Marx wrote in her findings. Bailey later described the conversation as "white noise" to investigators, who found the judge inappropriately had one lawyer physically removed before the jury. According to the high court justices, there was no standing order that only one attorney per side could argue a point. Bailey allegedly then gave the defendant 45 minutes to file a motion to disqualify him a motion he branded legally insufficient and denied, along with a motion for mistrial. The JQC suggested the subsequent not-guilty verdict could have stemmed from sympathy for the defense lawyers. But Bailey argued the opposite at a JQC hearing, claiming it proved the incident hadn't affected the jury. Defense lawyers Martinez and Foretich had tried to remove Bailey earlier in the case for allegedly being condescending and sarcastic, and for reprimanding one of them for whispering in co-counsel's ear at a hearing. Bailey's lawyer Michael E. Dutko of Dutko & Kroll in Fort Lauderdale said his client is pleased with the decision and looks forward to moving on. "Prior to going on the bench Judge Bailey was a very experienced litigator. While on the bench hes presided over many jury trials very efficiently and has gained favorable comments and praise from defense attorneys and prosecutors alike," Dutko said. "In this situation, he simply was a bit less patient than he should have been with a young, inexperienced assistant public defender." JQC attorney Alex Williams did not immediately respond. Story continues Bailey agreed to a public reprimand in a December 2018 stipulation, which said he's undergoing stress management courses, "so that in the future he is better equipped to handle stressful situations, and does not resort to knee-jerk reactions." The high court found Bailey violated canons governing patient, dignified and courteous behavior, as well as integrity, independence and the promotion of public confidence in the judiciary. The court aligned itself with certain findings by the JQC, one of which said, "There are tools that judges have for dealing with inappropriate conduct by lawyers: admonishment, referrals to the Florida Bar, or in extreme cases contempt proceedings. All of these were available to Judge Bailey if he truly felt that the attorneys were disruptive during the Espejo trial. Yet he chose not to utilize any of them." But the justices steered away from a "more severe" sanction because Bailey admitted his actions were inappropriate and intemperate, apologized and complied with the JQC's investigation. "We see no reason to do anything different here," the opinion said. Bailey was elected to the bench in 2014 and has no disciplinary history as a judge or during his 28 years as a trial lawyer 10 of which he spent serving as an assistant state attorney. Read the full court opinion: Related stories: Broward Judge in Hot Seat Over Alleged Mistreatment of Attorneys Miami Judge to be Publicly Reprimanded JQC Drops Case Against Former Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Stephen Millan LONDON, April 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE -- LinkResPet, a subsidiary of Link Reservations Inc ( OTC: LRSV ), a company providing cannabidiol (CBD) products especially tailored for pets, announces that it is finalizing negotiations with a certified U.S.-based CBD producer and fulfillment center. The Company and its partner are currently in the final stage of negotiations. Link Reservations Inc is looking to establish itself in the U.S./North America market. The Company has been communicating with various producers in order to find partners that meets their high standards and has now found such a producer to advance on their first partnership. Upon this arrangement being successfully completed and as the company explores retail opportunities, LRSV will be able to offer home delivery of its CBD pet product in the U.S. and Canada. The company will also be in a position to supply products to brick & mortar pet retailers. This will be a key for future growth as the LinkResPet product line increases. Rene Lauritsen, Link Reservations Inc. CEO, commented: This is a huge step for LRSV and our brand LinkResPet, and we are incredibly excited to be making advances in North America. We selected our new partner due to their high-grade CBD products and flexibility in production and delivery timeframes. We ensure our products undergo a rigorous process of quality control and testing, using the latest scientific methods that will confirm their quality and safety, which of course includes being free of bacteria, pesticides, mold, solvents, and other contaminants." The stringent testing of their CBD products is a key for Link Reservations Inc, which is why the Company is working with a producer that is committed to their high quality and safety standards and confirms the consistency of the hemp oil extract. The producer is specialized in SFE technique (Supercritical Fluid Extraction), using state of the art equipment. SFE/CO2 Extraction is the most sophisticated method of professionally producing hemp oil extract, gently obtaining the extract and preserving many of the plants active molecules, while being environmentally friendly and sustainable. In this process, supercritical CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas is used in natural product extraction, offering the possibility to separate materials from each other selectively and with great care. Story continues The CO2 extraction is classified as generally recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. To certify quality and safety, both potency and microbiological tests are performed, which ensure a consistent CBD level across the product line and assures no harmful bacteria or mold are present. Link Reservations Inc is currently undergoing final negotiations, with a view to completing the agreement and starting production as soon as possible. About Link Reservations Inc. Link Reservations Inc ( OTC: LRSV ), is a CBD Petcare provider dedicated to improving the health and life conditions of pets worldwide. Developing and marketing hemp-based CBD products for cats, dogs and horses, the Company is currently present in Europe and in the U.S. A pioneer in the area, Link Reservations Inc products can be found under its brand LinkResPet ( www.linkResPet.com ). Forward-Looking Statements & Disclaimers: The information in this Press Release includes certain "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of Federal Securities Laws, as that term is defined in section 27a of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and section 21e of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements in this document, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Investors are cautioned that such statements are based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including the future financial performance of the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations or any of its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date of this release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events, or circumstances after the date of this release except as required by law. Link Reservations Inc. 400 Thames Valley Park Drive Reading, Berkshire RG6 1 PT United Kingdom Phone: UK: +44 330 808 0897 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 11, 2019) - Revelo Resources Corp. (TSXV: RVL) ("Revelo" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed an Exploration Option Agreement with Sociedad Quimica Y Minera de Chile S.A., ("SQM") (NYSE: SQM), allowing SQM to acquire up to an 80% interest in two of Revelo's copper-focused projects at Calvario and Mirador in northern Chile. Both Calvario and Mirador display widespread geological characteristics indicative of the upper parts of possible porphyry copper systems, with Calvario having been the subject of minor historic drill testing, and Mirador representing an undrilled prospect. The two projects are contiguous and lie along one of the most prospective mineral belts in northern Chile, which includes major producing copper mines. Terms of the Exploration Option Agreement include: 5-year option for SQM to explore and earn an 80% interest in the combined properties. Cash payments to Revelo totalling up to US$ 5.225 million distributed over 5 years. Exploration expenditures totalling up to US$ 13.0 million distributed over 5 years. If SQM completes the Option and earns 80% of the combined properties, a joint-venture company (JVC) will be formed with SQM owning 80% and Revelo owning 20%, but SQM will subsequently free-carry Revelo through to the completion of a Canadian NI-43-101 compliant Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS). Once the PFS is completed, Revelo will have 120 days to decide whether to continue as a partner in the JVC at a 20% level, with standard dilution clauses, or to convert its interest into a 1.0% net smelter return (NSR) royalty in exchange for delivering its 20% interest in the JVC to SQM. The JVC will be responsible for underlying royalties covering portions of both properties. SQM has the right to exit the agreement at any time without further obligation for payment or expenditure The start date to the Exploration Option Agreement is subject to the successful conclusion of a surface rights access agreement with the single private owner of the surface rights at both Calvario and Mirador. Negotiations with the owner are at an advanced stage. The costs of such an access agreement will be met by SQM and included in the expenditure commitments indicated above. Story continues Tim Beale, CEO and President of Revelo, commented, "We are very pleased to have SQM, a major mining company with significant interests in Chile, as a partner at our Calvario and Mirador projects. This is Revelo's third currently active JV partner, with 4 projects currently subject to third party expenditures in northern Chile. We view both Calvario and Mirador as priority targets due to their overall geological characteristics, the widespread and intense nature of the hydrothermal alteration zones, and presence of important geochemical anomalies of interest. We are excited to see this exploration program develop." ABOUT CALVARIO & MIRADOR Both Calvario and Mirador lie along the southern extensions of the Paleocene magmatic belt of northern Chile that hosts some of the most important copper and precious metals deposits in the country, such as Cerro Colorado (BHP Billiton), Spence (BHP Billiton), Sierra Gorda (KGHM & Sumitomo), Nueva Union's Relincho deposit (Teck-Goldcorp), El Penon (Yamana Gold) and Guanaco (Austral Gold). Calvario encompasses about 6,900 Ha of 100% owned tenement, which is contiguous with the Mirador tenement directly to the south. Hydrothermal alteration extending over at least 5Km x 1Km, oriented northwest-southeast, is typified by extensive and intense quartz-sericite alteration, which typically occurs immediately above the potential copper-rich hypogene core of a porphyry copper system. Molybdenum geochemical anomalies in rock-chip sampling and quartz-veinlet stockworking support the prospective nature of the area, with copper oxides occurring associated with the principal target area. Minor, historic, shallow drilling has cut weak secondary copper enrichment, but no drill testing of a potential hypogene copper core has been carried out. The Calvario alteration zone is centred approximately 10Km north of the Mirador alteration zone. Mirador encompasses about 7,700 Ha of 100% owned tenement, which is contiguous with the Calvario tenement directly to the north. Hydrothermal alteration extending over at least 5Km x 1.5Km is oriented north-south, and possibly extends up to a further 2-3Km further south into an unexplored area. The alteration displays geological characteristics indicative of the upper portions of a porphyry copper and associated high-sulphidation base metals and precious metals system, with extensive quartz-alunite alteration at the highest elevations, transitioning into pyrophyllite and sericite at lower elevations. Multi-element geochemical anomalies in limited rock-chip sampling support the prospective nature of the area, with porphyry copper style quartz veinlet stockworking occurring at the lowest elevations in the north. The Mirador alteration zone is centred approximately 10Km south of the Calvario alteration zone. Calvario, located at altitudes of around 3,000 m to 3,300 m, is easily accessed via a paved road that extends from the Pan American Highway from the town of La Serena to the southwest, to Barrick's Pascua-Lama project in the high cordillera to the northeast, and which passes just 2Km to the north of the northern boundary of the Calvario property. A high-tension power line follows the same road. Existing dirt roads on the Calvario property make for easy access to all parts of the area of interest. Mirador, located at altitudes of around 2,500m to 2,900m, is accessed via a dirt road leading from the entry point to the Calvario property, and is located just 20Km south of the road and power infrastructure described for the Calvario property. For further details of both the Calvario and Mirador Projects please refer to the relevant Project pages on Revelo's website (www.reveloresources.com). Dr. Demetrius Pohl, Ph.D., Certified Professional Geoscientist (CPG), an independent consultant, is the Company's Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosures for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators and has approved the written disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release. ABOUT REVELO Revelo has interests in an outstanding portfolio of projects prospective for copper, gold and silver located along proven mineral belts in one of the world's top mining jurisdictions - Chile. The Company has a combination of wholly-owned projects (available for option, JV or sale), option agreements, royalty interests (non-producing to date), and equity interests in mining and exploration companies. Revelo's total exposure to mineral tenements in northern Chile, either wholly-owned or through royalty interests, is around 200,000 hectares. Revelo is a Canadian company and is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: RVL). For more information, please visit Revelo's website at www.reveloresources.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Michael Winn" Michael Winn, Chairman INVESTOR CONTACT Timothy J Beale | President & CEO T: +1 604 687-5544 | info@reveloresources.com | www.reveloresources.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that Revelo expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "indicate" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Revelo believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Cannot view this image? Visit: https://media.zenfs.com/en-us/newsfile_64/e21f032fe641cb75734c8a1ab3f57796 Map: Calvario & Mirador Projects District Geology & Tenement To view an enhanced version of this map, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3761/44016_35c888340467787a_002full.jpg To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44016 Agreement with Shionogi to commercialize Rizmoic (naldemedine) in Germany, UK and Netherlands, plus right of first refusal for certain other European markets Rizmoic is an innovative medicine for treating constipation caused by opioid pain relief medicines, in patients who have previously been treated with a laxative Agreement reinforces Sandoz anti-pain franchise and commitment to pioneer access to healthcare in areas of unmet medical need HOLZKIRCHEN, April 11 2019 - Sandoz today announces that it has signed an agreement with Shionogi & Co Ltd for commercialization of Rizmoic (naldemedine) in the key European markets of Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, plus right of first refusal for certain other European markets. Rizmoic, a once-daily 200-microgram oral tablet discovered and developed by Shionogi, is an innovative medicine indicated to treat opioid induced constipation (OIC) in adult patients previously treated with a laxative. Shionogi announced on February 22, 2019 that it had received EU marketing authorization for Rizmoic. OIC is a prevalent and distressing side-effect of opioid therapy that does not respond reliably to treatment with conventional laxatives[1]. "Our purpose at Sandoz is to pioneer access by focusing increasingly on differentiated, value-added therapeutics that can make a real difference when it comes to meeting unmet medical needs," said Francesco Balestrieri, Sandoz CEO a.i. He added: "This agreement represents a significant step forward for that strategy and for patients in Europe, reinforcing our long-term commitment to building a leading anti-pain franchise and complementing our portfolio dedicated to minimizing the side-effects of opioid use." Sandoz has a strong presence in the European market for anti-pain therapeutics, as well as a complementary strategic focus on innovative therapeutic alternatives to combat opioid dependency. This year saw the US launch of two such products, including the first prescription digital therapeutic in this field. Story continues Under the terms of the agreement, Sandoz will be responsible for commercializing Rizmoic in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands and Shionogi will be responsible for its manufacturing and development. Further details of the deal are not being disclosed. About Rizmoic (naldemedine) Naldemedine is a peripherally-acting mu-opioid receptor antagonist (PAMORA) that has been developed by Shionogi as a once-daily treatment for OIC. The efficacy and safety of naldemedine have been evaluated in randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in adult OIC patients in different countries who have chronic non-cancer pain or cancer. OIC is a change in bowel movements caused by opioid therapy that is characterized by any of the following: reduced bowel movement frequency, development or worsening of straining to pass bowel movements, a sense of incomplete rectal evacuation, or harder stool consistency [2]. Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "drives," "portfolio," "commitment," "purpose," "pioneer," "focusing," "can," "step forward," "strategy," "commitment," "launch," "will," "may," "potential," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential launches, marketing clearances and authorizations, new indications or labeling for naldemedine or the other products described in this press release, or regarding potential future revenues from such products or the collaboration with Shionogi. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. There is no guarantee that the collaboration with Shionogi will achieve any or all of its intended goals and objectives, or within any particular time frame. Neither can there be any guarantee that naldemedine will be successfully launched in the defined European markets, in the expected time frame, or at all. Nor can there be any guarantee that naldemedine, the other products described in this press release, or the collaboration with Shionogi will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products and the collaboration with Shionogi could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; competition in general, including potential approval of additional competing versions of such products; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; litigation outcomes, including intellectual property disputes or other legal efforts to prevent or limit each of Sandoz or Shionogi from marketing its products; general political, economic and industry conditions; safety, quality or production issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG`s current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Sandoz Sandoz, a Novartis division, is a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars and a pioneer in the emerging field of prescription digital therapeutics. Our purpose is to pioneer access to healthcare by developing and commercializing novel, affordable approaches that address unmet medical need. Our broad portfolio of high-quality medicines, covering all major therapeutic areas and increasingly focused on value-adding differentiated medicines, accounted for 2018 sales of USD 9.9 billion. Sandoz is headquartered in Holzkirchen, in Germany`s Greater Munich area. Sandoz is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Sandoz global at http://twitter.com/Sandoz_Global. References [1] Coyne E, et al. Opioid-Induced constipation among patients with chronic Non-cancer pain in the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom: Laxative use, response and symptom burden over time. Pain. 2015;16:1551-1565.) [2] Camilleri M, Drossman D.A, Becker G, Webster L.R, Davies A.N, Mawe G.M. Emerging treatments in neurogastroenterology: a multi-disciplinary working group consensus statement on opioid-induced constipation. Neurogastroenterology Motil. 26, 1386 1395. # # # Novartis Media Relations Central media line: +41 61 324 2200 E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com Eric Althoff Chris Lewis Novartis Global Media Relations Sandoz Global Communications +41 61 324 7999 (direct) +49 174 244 9501 (mobile) +41 79 593 4202 (mobile) chris.lewis@sandoz.com eric.althoff@novartis.com Novartis Investor Relations Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944 E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com Central North America Samir Shah +41 61 324 7944 Richard Pulik +1 212 830 2448 Pierre-Michel Bringer +41 61 324 1065 Cory Twining +1 212 830 2417 Thomas Hungerbuehler +41 61 324 8425 Isabella Zinck +41 61 324 7188 Media release (PDF) This announcement is distributed by West Corporation on behalf of West Corporation clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Novartis International AG via GlobeNewswire HUG#2241392 Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 1 Vote(s) - 5 Average 1 2 3 4 5 It's Spring And A Monster Winter Storm Is About To Punish Central U.S. ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 493119 04-11-2019 05:54 AM Posts: 5,423 Post: #1 It's Spring And A Monster Winter Storm Is About To Punish Central U.S. Advertisement About three weeks into spring and 40 million Americans are under wind-related advisories, and millions more are expecting blizzard conditions across the Midwest. Parts of Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota are expecting heavy snow resulting in blizzard conditions through Thursday. "This is potentially a life-threatening storm," Patrick Burke, a meteorologist at National Weather Service (NWS) in College Park, Maryland, said on Wednseday morning. Parts of Utah, Nevada, western Wyoming, Idaho, and California could see wind speeds approaching hurricane strength on Wednesday, with some gusts up to 74 mph. About 4 million people in Colorado, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Iowa, Wyoming, and Kansas are under severe winter storm warnings and blizzard warnings through Thursday morning, NWS said. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-1...central-us It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... It's Spring And A Monster Winter Storm Is About To Punish Central U.S.About three weeks into spring and 40 million Americans are under wind-related advisories, and millions more are expecting blizzard conditions across the Midwest.Parts of Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota are expecting heavy snow resulting in blizzard conditions through Thursday."This is potentially a life-threatening storm," Patrick Burke, a meteorologist at National Weather Service (NWS) in College Park, Maryland, said on Wednseday morning.Parts of Utah, Nevada, western Wyoming, Idaho, and California could see wind speeds approaching hurricane strength on Wednesday, with some gusts up to 74 mph.About 4 million people in Colorado, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Iowa, Wyoming, and Kansas are under severe winter storm warnings and blizzard warnings through Thursday morning, NWS said. ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 493119 04-11-2019 05:59 AM Posts: 5,423 Post: #2 RE: It's Spring And A Monster Winter Storm Is About To Punish Central U.S. Quote: Flood evacuation orders have already been issued in Oregon and Washington state. NWS warned that some areas of western Minnesota and southeast South Dakota could see 30 inches of heavy wet snow by Thursday afternoon. The region in focus is the Central U.S., the same area where a "bomb cyclone" hit last month and unleashed deadly flooding and blizzards. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 493119 04-11-2019 06:05 AM Posts: 5,423 Post: #3 RE: It's Spring And A Monster Winter Storm Is About To Punish Central U.S. Rapidly intensifying and large scale storm expected to develop across the Central U.S. http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-121069.html It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... (This post was last modified: 04-11-2019 06:06 AM by ALADIN .) ALADIN * weird wizard1* User ID: 493119 04-11-2019 05:46 PM Posts: 5,423 Post: #4 RE: It's Spring And A Monster Winter Storm Is About To Punish Central U.S. Another "Bomb Cyclone" Hammers U.S. Plains And Midwest As the storm reaches "bomb cyclone" criteria on Thursday, more than 200 million people in the United States will feel the impact of this dangerous weather system sweeping across the Plains and Midwest. Heavy snow has developed and will continue to fall on the northern Plains, a portion of the central Plains and Upper Midwest into Thursday night as arctic air rushes in, reported Reuters. Into the overnight, heavy snow will extend from northeast Colorado and northwest Kansas through Nebraska, South Dakota, southeast North Dakota, Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. "It is a bomb cyclone, the second weve had," said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist at National Weather Service (NWS) in College Park, Maryland. "This is like a slow-moving snowstorm inside a hurricane." PowerOutage.Us shows 13,660 homes and businesses are without power in Minnesota, and about 9,500 in South Dakota around 7 am est. Between 4 am and 8 am, there are 61 airport delays across the U.S., mostly seen at MinneapolisSaint Paul International Airport, according to Flight Aware. The region in focus is the Central U.S., the same area where a "bomb cyclone" hit last month and unleashed deadly flooding and blizzards. A little over $3 billion in damage was done to property, crops, and livestock in Nebraska and Iowa alone. "The heaviest snow so far is piling up in South and North Dakota, with some areas getting 17 inches, and more is on the way," Hurley said. "Were expected another 10 to 15 inches before this is done." The snow adds new woes to Midwest farmlands which have been slammed by President's Trade war and last month's "bomb cyclone." NWS said this storm is a "historical springtime snowstorm." The storm is expected to crossover the Great Lakes area and northern Michigan on Friday, bringing more rain and snow to the East North Central U.S. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-1...nd-midwest As the storm reaches "bomb cyclone" criteria on Thursday, more than 200 million people in the United States will feel the impact of this dangerous weather system sweeping across the Plains and Midwest.Heavy snow has developed and will continue to fall on the northern Plains, a portion of the central Plains and Upper Midwest into Thursday night as arctic air rushes in, reported Reuters.Into the overnight, heavy snow will extend from northeast Colorado and northwest Kansas through Nebraska, South Dakota, southeast North Dakota, Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan."It is a bomb cyclone, the second weve had," said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist at National Weather Service (NWS) in College Park, Maryland. "This is like a slow-moving snowstorm inside a hurricane."PowerOutage.Us shows 13,660 homes and businesses are without power in Minnesota, and about 9,500 in South Dakota around 7 am est.Between 4 am and 8 am, there are 61 airport delays across the U.S., mostly seen at MinneapolisSaint Paul International Airport, according to Flight Aware.The region in focus is the Central U.S., the same area where a "bomb cyclone" hit last month and unleashed deadly flooding and blizzards. A little over $3 billion in damage was done to property, crops, and livestock in Nebraska and Iowa alone."The heaviest snow so far is piling up in South and North Dakota, with some areas getting 17 inches, and more is on the way," Hurley said. "Were expected another 10 to 15 inches before this is done."The snow adds new woes to Midwest farmlands which have been slammed by President's Trade war and last month's "bomb cyclone."NWS said this storm is a "historical springtime snowstorm."The storm is expected to crossover the Great Lakes area and northern Michigan on Friday, bringing more rain and snow to the East North Central U.S. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a ma s k on their nose and mouth ... Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread On Apr 10, we issued an updated research report on Seattle Genetics, Inc. SGEN. The companys top line mainly comprises product revenues, collaboration and license agreement revenues plus royalties. Seattle Genetics only marketed product is Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin). The drug is approved for relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and relapsed systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (sALCL) in the United States, the EU and Japan. Adcetris is also approved in the United States and Europe for the treatment of patients suffering classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) with no prior treatment and who are also at high risk of relapse or progression post autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-HSCT) consolidation. It is also approved for primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (pcALCL) and CD30-expressing mycosis fungoides (MF) in the United States. Notably, in February 2019, Seattle Genetics announced that its Japanese partner, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, received a nod from the European Commission (EC) to extend the marketing authorization for Adcetris to include the combination of the drug and AVD (Adriamycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine) for treating adult patients with previously untreated CD30+ stage IV cHL. Adcetris in combination with AVD is also approved in the United States for the treatment of adult patients with the earlier untreated stage III or IV cHL. Seattle Genetics has an agreement with Takeda for the development and commercialization of Adcetris. The company retains all its rights to sell Adcetris in the United States and Canada while Takeda has the commercial rights to the drug in the rest of the world. However, Adcetris has several competitors including Bristol-Myers Squibbs BMY Opdivo and Mercks MRK Keytruda, which are approved for relapsed or refractory cHL. Shares of Seattle Genetics have surged 42.8% so far this year, outperforming the industrys increase of 9.8%. Story continues Apart from Adcetris, Seattle Genetics has some promising pipeline candidates in its portfolio, which are under early- and mid-stage development. Seattle Genetics and Astellas are evaluating enfortumab vedotin in a pivotal phase II study on patients with metastatic urothelial cancer, previously treated with both a checkpoint inhibitor (PD-1/PD-L1) and platinum-based chemotherapy. In March 2019, both companies reported positive top-line results from the first cohort of the phase II EV-201 program on enfortumab vedotin. Both entities plan to submit a biologics license application (BLA) for enfortumab vedotin to the FDA later this year. Also, during the same month, Seattle Genetics completed enrollment in the phase II innovaTV 204 probe on tisotumab vedotin, currently under evaluation as a monotherapy for treating patients with advanced/metastatic cervical cancer, whose disease relapsed or progressed after the standard of care treatment. Tisotumab vedotin is being developed in partnership with the Danish company, Genmab A/S GNMSF. Another interesting candidate in Seattle Genetics portfolio is SEA-BCMA, which is being assessed in a phase I investigation for treating patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM). Adcetris is performing well since its launch and the drugs label expansion programs look promising as well. However, Seattle Genetics remains heavily dependent on Adcetris for revenues, which is a matter of concern. Therefore, a decline in the medicines sales will adversely impact the company's top line. Although the organization is working on various label expansion studies of the drug, any unfavorable response from the regulatory bodies could materially hurt the stock. Seattle Genetics, Inc. Price and Consensus Seattle Genetics, Inc. Price and Consensus | Seattle Genetics, Inc. Quote Zacks Rank Seattle Genetics currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strrong Buy) stocks here. Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. Theyre also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases. Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +98%, +119% and +164% in as little as 1 month. The stocks in this report could perform even better. See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>> 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 Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Seattle Genetics, Inc. (SGEN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Genmab A/S (GNMSF) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research A Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane being built for Spain-based Air Europa rolls toward takeoff before a test flight, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, at Boeing Field in Seattle. Flight test and other non-passenger-bearing flights of the plane continue in the Seattle area where the plane is manufactured, as a world-wide grounding the the 737 MAX 8 continues, following fatal crashes of MAX 8's operated by Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) DALLAS (AP) Boeing's CEO says crews have made 96 flights to test a software update for its troubled 737 Max jet and will make more in coming weeks as the company attempts to convince regulators to let the plane fly again. Dennis Muilenburg also said Thursday that the company has met with pilots and airline officials in the U.S. and abroad, holding flight-simulator sessions to demonstrate the software changes. The Federal Aviation Administration, which will consider whether the plane can resume flying in the U.S., plans to meet Friday with safety officials and pilots from American, Southwest and United, the three U.S. carriers that were using the Max jet. An FAA spokesman said the agency wants to hear from the airlines and pilots before deciding what Boeing must do before the plane is allowed to fly. Regulators around the world grounded the Max last month after deadly crashes involving the plane in Indonesia and Ethiopia. In both cases, faulty information from a sensor caused anti-stall automation to kick in when it wasn't needed and push the plane's nose down. Pilots struggled to counter the plane's actions but were unable to avoid crashing. Regulators in Europe and China are conducting their own reviews of the plane, and company insiders and analysts expect foreign regulators to take longer than the FAA to approve the Max's return to service. Boeing representatives have visited the United Kingdom, Singapore and China to discuss its work on the Max with pilots and airline officials, including demonstrating the software update in flight simulators, Muilenburg. The Boeing CEO spoke during a leadership forum at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, as the former president sat in the front row. Muilenburg did not take any questions, and left immediately after his remarks. Separately, Sen. Edward Markey and other Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would require aircraft makers to provide airlines with all safety equipment now considered optional and to do it at no extra charge. The planes that crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia did not have two optional displays that might have alerted the pilots to the malfunctioning sensors suspected of playing a role in the crashes. Markey said if they had been installed, the crashes might have been avoided. Story continues The Air Line Pilots Association endorsed the legislation. A Boeing spokesman said the company's planes are equipped with "all critical features" necessary for safety. Boeing has said it will provide the two displays free of charge in the future. ___ Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this report. The amendment would require the Energy and State departments to issue a quarterly report to Congress on so-called Part 810 authorizations. The authorizations are issued to companies to discuss nonpublic nuclear technology and consult on atomic energy with foreign countries. Congress and the Trump administration have clashed over Part 810 authorizations for cooperation with Saudi Arabia. A group of bipartisan senators on Wednesday introduced legislation that would require the executive branch to regularly disclose when it allows companies to engage in nuclear energy cooperation with foreign countries. The move comes amid an uproar on Capitol Hill following reports that the Department of Energy gave permission to several companies to share nuclear energy information with Saudi Arabia . The Energy Department later confirmed that it has granted seven of the so-called Part 810 authorizations to U.S. firms competing to build nuclear reactors in the kingdom. Part 810 authorizations are issued to companies so they can discuss nonpublic nuclear energy technology with foreign counterparts. The companies responding to the Saudi request for bids would need the permissions to make their pitches. Former U.S. nonproliferation officials tell CNBC the authorizations likely cover very basic information and do not raise concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation. Still, members of Congress have hammered Trump officials over the authorizations in recent budget hearings and moved swiftly to introduce oversight to the Part 810 process. On Wednesday, Democratic Sens. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Tim Kaine of Virginia partnered with Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Todd Young of Indiana to introduce an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act. The amendment would require the Energy and State departments to report to Congress any Part 810 applications reviewed and approved or rejected over the last 90 days in a quarterly report. The amendment would also require the Energy Department to send to Congress all Part 810 authorizations going back to 2015, the last time the department revised the application process. Story continues Finally, the legislation would give the chairman or ranking member of several congressional committees the authority to request any pending or approved Part 810 applications. The Energy Department would have to answer the request within 10 days. The Energy and State departments are jointly responsible for approving Part 810 authorizations. They are not required to proactively report those permissions to Congress. The president is required to keep Congress "fully and currently informed of any initiative or negotiations" relating to 123 Agreements, the overarching deals that the U.S. must reach with foreign nations before shipping nuclear equipment and fuel overseas. These agreements lay out nine criteria meant to ensure nuclear energy technology is used responsibly and that transfers do not pave the way to atomic weapons programs. Many members of Congress object to selling nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in light of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents and the kingdom's role in the ongoing war in Yemen. They also point to comments from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that his country would try to obtain a nuclear weapon if regional rival Iran developed one. However, in pressing Trump administration members on the Part 810 issue, some senators have made inaccurate and misleading statements in recent weeks. Misleading claims on Capitol Hill Lawmakers including Kaine during a hearing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday have accused the administration of keeping the Part 810 authorizations for Saudi cooperation secret. In fact, the National Nuclear Security Administration always gives companies the option to keep the authorizations private, and it is not unusual for firms to exercise that right. It is not up to the agency to disclose or not disclose the authorizations. Rubio and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., issued a press release last week saying the Energy Department took the "unusual step" of issuing Part 810 authorizations for cooperation with Saudi Arabia before reaching a 123 Agreement with the kingdom. But former U.S. officials have told CNBC there is nothing unusual or untoward about issuing 810 authorizations to a country that does not have a 123 Agreement in place with the U.S. Part 810 agreements can actually help lay the groundwork for a 123 Agreement. Some lawmakers have also overstated Congress' role in international nuclear energy cooperation, suggesting the Trump administration is freezing them out. Last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren , D-Mass., accused Energy Secretary Rick Perry of pushing the Saudis to choose an American company to build its proposed reactors at the expense of "working with Congress to nail down an agreement that will prevent the Saudis from developing a nuclear weapon." But the executive branch alone is empowered to negotiate a 123 Agreement with a foreign country. Congress has the ability to reject a 123 Agreement once the completed deal is presented to lawmakers. Despite the misleading claim, Warren later promoted the exchange in a tweet, saying Perry "seemed confused by that law so I helped him understand it." Tweet More From CNBC FILE PHOTO: An employee checks freshly roasted coffee beans at H. Schwarzenbach coffee roastery in Zurich FILE PHOTO: An employee checks freshly roasted coffee beans during cooling down in a tumbler at H. Schwarzenbach coffee roastery in Zurich, Switzerland December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo By John Miller ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland on Wednesday announced plans to abolish the nation's emergency stockpile of coffee, in place for decades, after declaring the beans not vital for human survival, though opposition to the proposal is brewing. Nestle, the maker of instant coffee Nescafe, and other importers, roasters and retailers are required by Swiss law to store bags of raw coffee. The country stockpiles other staples, too, such as sugar, rice, edible oils and animal feed. This system of emergency reserves was established between World War I and World War II as Switzerland prepared for any potential shortages in case of war, natural disaster or epidemics. According to the plan released for public comment, coffee stockpiling obligations would expire by the end of 2022, with companies free to draw down what they store in their warehouses. "The Federal Office for National Economic Supply has concluded coffee...is not essential for life," the government said. "Coffee has almost no calories and subsequently does not contribute, from the physiological perspective, to safeguarding nutrition." A final decision on scrapping coffee stockpiles is expected in November. Switzerland's mandatory coffee reserves are now spread over 15 companies, including Nestle, and amount to about 15,300 tonnes, enough to cover three months of the Alpine state's domestic coffee consumption. Switzerland's 8.5 million residents consume around nine kg (20 lb) of coffee per person annually, eclipsing Britain's 3.3 kg average and double the 4.5 kg consumed in the United States, according to International Coffee Organization figures. Not everyone wants to see the Swiss strategic coffee reserve disappear, however. Reservesuisse, the Bern-based organization that oversees Switzerland's food stockpiles, last year asked the Federal Office to reconsider its recommendation. Of the 15 companies that hold mandatory coffee stockpiles, Reservesuisse said, 12 wanted to continue, in part, because the existing system helps buttress the supply chain. Some also contend too little attention was paid to the drink's health benefits, like antioxidants or vitamins. Story continues "Stockpile operators' concerns clearly show that the one-sided review and weighting of calories as the main criteria for a vital staple did not do justice to coffee," Reservesuisse wrote in a letter seen by Reuters. A Nestle spokeswoman declined to comment on its position. Switzerland finances its mandatory coffee stockpile via a fee of 3.75 Swiss francs on every 100 kg of imported beans, raising 2.7 million Swiss francs ($2.70 million) annually to compensate companies for storing beans. In the event the mandatory stockpile is eliminated, the government said it expects importers that are freed from the fee to pass on any savings to coffee consumers. ($1 = 1.0004 Swiss francs) (The story corrects the date of the letter sent by Reservesuisse in paragraphs 10, 12) (Editing by Alexandra Hudson) Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 1 Vote(s) - 5 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497064 04-11-2019 06:30 AM Post: #1 Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe Advertisement The germ, a fungus called Candida auris, preys on people with weakened immune systems, and it is quietly spreading across the globe. Over the last five years, it has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a prestigious British medical center to shut down its intensive care unit, and taken root in India, Pakistan and South Africa. Recently C. auris reached New York, New Jersey and Illinois, leading the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to add it to a list of germs deemed urgent threats. The man at Mount Sinai died after 90 days in the hospital, but C. auris did not. Tests showed it was everywhere in his room, so invasive that the hospital needed special cleaning equipment and had to rip out some of the ceiling and floor tiles to eradicate it. Everything was positive the walls, the bed, the doors, the curtains, the phones, the sink, the whiteboard, the poles, the pump, said Dr. Scott Lorin, the hospitals president. The mattress, the bed rails, the canister holes, the window shades, the ceiling, everything in the room was positive. C. auris is so tenacious, in part, because it is impervious to major antifungal medications, making it a new example of one of the worlds most intractable health threats: the rise of drug-resistant infections...." http://strangesounds.org/2019/04/drug-re...auris.html VEY SERIOUS SITUATION... "....Last May, an elderly man was admitted to the Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital for abdominal surgery. A blood test revealed that he was infected with a newly discovered germ as deadly as it was mysterious. Doctors swiftly isolated him in the intensive care unit.The germ, a fungus called Candida auris, preys on people with weakened immune systems, and it is quietly spreading across the globe. Over the last five years, it has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a prestigious British medical center to shut down its intensive care unit, and taken root in India, Pakistan and South Africa.Recently C. auris reached New York, New Jersey and Illinois, leading the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to add it to a list of germs deemed urgent threats.The man at Mount Sinai died after 90 days in the hospital, but C. auris did not. Tests showed it was everywhere in his room, so invasive that the hospital needed special cleaning equipment and had to rip out some of the ceiling and floor tiles to eradicate it.Everything was positive the walls, the bed, the doors, the curtains, the phones, the sink, the whiteboard, the poles, the pump, said Dr. Scott Lorin, the hospitals president. The mattress, the bed rails, the canister holes, the window shades, the ceiling, everything in the room was positive.C. auris is so tenacious, in part, because it is impervious to major antifungal medications, making it a new example of one of the worlds most intractable health threats: the rise of drug-resistant infections...."VEY SERIOUS SITUATION... LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497057 04-11-2019 06:31 AM Post: #2 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe Time for the great culling.. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497064 04-11-2019 06:32 AM Post: #3 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe Where does this come from? I can think of several sources ..... including ... aliens LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496988 04-11-2019 06:33 AM Post: #4 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe Candida is NOT a bacteria. Title says "and bacteria" We had this story several times in other threads (plural) the last few days. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497064 04-11-2019 06:38 AM Post: #5 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe humanity is being attacked in many fronts... Now...it is dangerous to go outside... Have you seen the UVs mesures lately?? super high cosmic rays, chemtrails everywhere with who knows what in the spray..... and now this.... God help us add the geological situation of the planet LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497064 04-11-2019 06:42 AM Post: #6 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe I saw it also on CNN... Pollen apocalypse before severe thunderstorms in North Carolina http://strangesounds.org/2019/04/pollen-...l2019.html WHAT IS THIS??I saw it also on CNN... LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497064 04-11-2019 06:44 AM Post: #7 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:33 AM) Candida is NOT a bacteria. Title says "and bacteria" We had this story several times in other threads (plural) the last few days. It is in the MSM in my country they started the RED ALERT.... LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496988 04-11-2019 06:49 AM Post: #8 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:44 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:33 AM) Candida is NOT a bacteria. Title says "and bacteria" We had this story several times in other threads (plural) the last few days. It is in the MSM in my country they started the RED ALERT.... I'm not disputing the alerts ... its the word "and bacteria" in the title but the thread is about a FUNGUS. A fungus and a bacteria are as different as a rock and a cabbage. The bad FUNGUS is the Candida in the story. There is no "bacteria" in the Candida story. I'm not disputing the alerts ... its the word "and bacteria" in the title but the thread is about a FUNGUS.A fungus and a bacteria are as different as a rock and a cabbage.The bad FUNGUS is the Candida in the story.There is no "bacteria" in the Candida story. cali Banned User ID: 446174 04-11-2019 06:51 AM Posts: 2,105 Post: #9 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe zee fungus among us LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497064 04-11-2019 06:51 AM Post: #10 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:49 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:44 AM) It is in the MSM in my country they started the RED ALERT.... I'm not disputing the alerts ... its the word "and bacteria" in the title but the thread is about a FUNGUS. A fungus and a bacteria are as different as a rock and a cabbage. The bad FUNGUS is the Candida in the story. There is no "bacteria" in the Candida story. read the article before you post read the article before you post LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 497064 04-11-2019 06:52 AM Post: #11 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe We have no idea where its coming from. Weve never heard of it. Its just spread like wildfire, "The fungus seems to have emerged in several locations at once..." VERY WEIRD VERY DISTURBING.... LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496988 04-11-2019 06:53 AM Post: #12 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:51 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:49 AM) I'm not disputing the alerts ... its the word "and bacteria" in the title but the thread is about a FUNGUS. A fungus and a bacteria are as different as a rock and a cabbage. The bad FUNGUS is the Candida in the story. There is no "bacteria" in the Candida story. read the article before you post my bad :) I only read the part you wrote in opening post. They do tie in the bad bacteria as well later on in the story. my bad :) I only read the part you wrote in opening post.They do tie in the bad bacteria as well later on in the story. ~Leela~ Registered User User ID: 496937 04-11-2019 06:58 AM Posts: 2,158 Post: #13 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:53 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:51 AM) read the article before you post my bad :) I only read the part you wrote in opening post. They do tie in the bad bacteria as well later on in the story. Candida is yeast, a fungus. Whats really strange about this story is that hospitals are allowed not to disclose the amount of patients that die from it and I think I read it's a 60% rate. They're not allowed to do so as not to create panic. It's from long term care ...in other words....the hospitals are the carriers. f**ked. Candida is yeast, a fungus.Whats really strange about this story is that hospitals are allowed not to disclose the amount of patients that die from it and I think I read it's a 60% rate. They're not allowed to do so as not to create panic.It's from long term care ...in other words....the hospitals are the carriers. f**ked. cali Banned User ID: 497068 04-11-2019 07:13 AM Posts: 2,105 Post: #14 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe Golden showers bring fungus flowers LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496812 04-11-2019 07:20 AM Post: #15 RE: Mysterious and deadly fungi and bacteria sweep SECRETLY around the globe ~Leela~ Wrote: (04-11-2019 06:58 AM) Whats really strange about this story is that hospitals are allowed not to disclose the amount of patients that die from it and I think I read it's a 60% rate. They're not allowed to do so as not to create panic. It's from long term care ...in other words....the hospitals are the carriers. f**ked. Just like MRSA, VRE, CRE C DIF etc.. and other MRO's - the vast majority of people who get them actually catch them whilst in hospital. Just like MRSA, VRE, CRE C DIF etc.. and other MRO's - the vast majority of people who get them actually catch them whilst in hospital. Advertisement Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread (Bloomberg) -- A team of scientists, some of whom have worked for Elon Musk, outlined a way to rapidly implant electrical wiring into the brains of rats. The process, described in an unpublished academic paper, is an important step toward a potential system to plug human brains directly into computers. The papers five authors have been employed by or loosely associated with Neuralink, a small and secretive brain computing startup founded by Musk, according to people familiar with their work and public information. Some of the research predates the formation of the company, and there is no mention of the scientists affiliation with the billionaire in the paper, which was posted last month to an online repository for academics and hasnt been previously reported. The authors dub their system a sewing machine for the brain. It involves scientists in a laboratory removing a piece of a rats skull and inserting a single needle that sends flexible electrodes into brain tissue. The researchers are soliciting feedback on their work before submitting it for peer review and publication in a scientific journal. The authors and a spokesman for Neuralink either declined to comment or didnt respond to requests. Still years away from possible human testing, the paper shows a path forward to monitoringand potentially stimulatingbrain activity with minimal cranial harm. That could enable a company like Neuralink to one day build a device with artificial intelligence that people could access with their thoughts. Still, such a business may find it difficult to locate customers willing to undergo surgery to remove a chunk of their skulls. To start, the science community sees promise in a version of the technology that could treat patients with Parkinsons disease, memory loss or other ailments of the brain. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provided financial support for the research. The agency, DARPA, is known for its role in forming the internet and GPS. For the rat-brain project, DARPA awarded $2.1 million to the University of California at San Francisco, where the bulk of the work was done in conjunction with a lab at Berkeley. Although more research is needed to refine the overall interface system and better integrate its components, these developments may ultimately open the possibility of bundling next-generation robotics, AI software and electronics to create alternatives to present-day neurosurgical techniques, Justin Sanchez, the director of DARPAs Biological Technologies Office, wrote in an emailed statement. Story continues Scientists have been working for years on ways to place electrodes in the brain while causing as little damage or inflammation as possible. One major challenge is crafting highly flexible electrodes that can move with the brain but are rigid enough to be inserted in just the right spot. Mackenzie Mathis, a researcher who studies rodents at Harvard Universitys Rowland Institute, compares the problem to injecting cooked spaghetti into Jello. The new study is a big step in the right direction, said Mathis, whos unaffiliated with the paper. The sewing machine employs a novel technique to solve that challenge. It uses a stiff needle to insert a bendable and thin polymer electrode, just a few millimeters in length, deep into the brain. The machine injects an electrode every few seconds, much faster than alternative methods. Attached is a small circuit board, which sits on the back of the rats head and records signals from the brain. In the paper, scientists detailed their work with adult, male, Long-Evans rats, a common test subject in labs. In one case, a rat with two dozen implanted electrodes was monitored for two months. Other rats implants didnt last as long. Sometimes tiny circuit boards glued to the top of the rats heads simply fell off after a few weeks. There are other drawbacks. Electrodes from the sewing machine arent as thin as those used in experiments by other labs, the researchers wrote. The thinner they are, the harder it is to get them into place. Also, the experiments sometimes caused minor tissue damage. Neuralink was registered as a California medical research company in 2016 and has operated furtively since then. Musks involvement was revealed by the Wall Street Journal in March the following year and confirmed by Musk in an interview with the blog Wait But Why a month later. The company has hired away several high-profile neuroscientists from various universities and contracted with a laboratory at the University of California at Davis to conduct research on primates. The venture has both awed and repelled various Musk watchers over the possibilities it seemingly offers for connecting brains to computers. On Wednesday, when asked by a Twitter user for a Neuralink update, Musk replied, Probably something notable to announce in a few months. As unpleasant as brain probing may sound, the findings could help scientists better understand lifes most enigmatic organ. Musk said in his interview with Wait But Why two years ago that he hoped to achieve a technical advancement that would help treat severe brain injuries by 2021. Beyond that, the science could expand the capacity of the human race, according to Musk. He gave an example where people could communicate complicated concepts telepathically. You wouldnt need to verbalize unless you want to add a little flair to the conversation or something, he said. That gets into AI and the even more controversial question of whether humans will one day merge with machines. Musk argued that humans already have done that to some degree, because of near-omnipresent technologies like smartphones, and that this work should continue. This might lead to a sci-fi future where you could download a foreign language into your mind. Musk envisioned grander goals. They include giving people the capability to challenge super-intelligent machines before they turn malevolent. Another scenario Musk posited is that humans without enhanced brainpower would become like house cats for their robot overlords: A house cat is a good outcome, by the way. To contact the author of this story: Sarah McBride in San Francisco at smcbride24@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Robert Fenner For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. (Adds Tesla statement on Gigafactory funding, recasts first paragraph) By Makiko Yamazaki and Arjun Panchadar TOKYO/BENGALURU, April 11 (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp and Tesla Inc will continue to make new investments in the U.S. electric carmaker's Gigafactory as needed, but believe they can squeeze more out of existing resources than previously planned, Tesla said on Thursday. Separately, Panasonic said it was watching the demand situation in the electric car market before making any further investments in expanding the capacity of the Nevada plant. The two companies were responding to a report by Japan's Nikkei that said they had frozen previous plans to raise the capacity of the plant, which supplies battery packs for Tesla cars. "Both Tesla and Panasonic continue to invest substantial funds into Gigafactory," a Tesla spokesperson said. "That said, we believe there is far more output to be gained from improving existing production equipment than was previously estimated." Giving no details of its sources, the Nikkei reported https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Tesla-and-Panasonic-freeze-spending-on-4.5bn-Gigafactory that financial issues had led the companies to rethink plans to expand the capacity of Gigafactory 1 by another 50 percent next year. The business daily said the companies had already together invested $4.5 billion in the facility and had been planning to expand the plant's capacity to the equivalent of 54 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year in 2020 from 35 GWh at present. "Panasonic established a battery production capacity of 35 GWh in Tesla's Gigafactory 1 by the end of March 2019 in line with growing demand," Japan-based Panasonic said in an email. "Watching the demand situation, Panasonic will study additional investments over 35 GWh in collaboration with Tesla." Neither company had made public detailed future development plans for the site, although Panasonic said https://www.reuters.com/article/us-panasonic-batteries-idUSKBN1JS08J in July last year it would consider further investment in the Gigafactory if requested by the U.S. electric carmaker. Story continues Panasonic is the exclusive battery cell supplier for Tesla, which in turn is Panasonic's biggest EV battery client. In February, Tesla said it had agreed to buy U.S. energy storage company Maxwell Technologies Inc, sending shares in Panasonic lower. Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk also said in November the U.S. company would manufacture all its battery modules and packs at its new Shanghai factory and planned to diversify its sources. The Nikkei report said Panasonic would also suspend its planned investment in Tesla's new Shanghai plant and would instead provide technical support and a small number of batteries from the Gigafactory. The Japanese company has only said that it was studying various possibilities with regards to the plant. Lower-than-expected car deliveries by Tesla in the first quarter spooked stock and bond investors earlier this month, adding to Wall Street's concerns about its future cashflow. Tesla is expected to report first-quarter earnings on April 24. (Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham, Anil D'Silva and Shounak Dasgupta) U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Texas from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The likelihood of a court fight over President Donald Trump's tax returns grew on Wednesday when the U.S. Treasury Department showed no sign of complying with a deadline set by Democratic legislators and Trump himself stuck to his refusal to publicly release them. Republican Trump has consistently refused requests by politicians, journalists and others, stating his reason for not doing so is that the returns are under audit. Tax and legal experts have said, however, that an audit should not prevent their public release, a practice presidents have followed for decades. With only hours left before a midnight deadline set for the Treasury Department by the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives tax committee, the panel said it had not received the returns. The department, which has consulted with the White House on the panel's demand, did not respond to requests for comment. Democrats want to review Trump's returns chiefly as part of their investigations into possible conflicts of interest posed by his continued ownership of extensive business interests even as he serves the public as president. Republicans oppose release of the returns, arguing that it would politicize tax data. The returns of U.S. taxpayers are generally held as confidential by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is part of the Treasury Department. "There is a high likelihood this ends up in the courts, which is, in a way, unusual because typically when theres a request like this by Congress, the matter is settled more politically with a compromise," said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who specializes in political process law. "But in this case both sides have really dug in." Legal experts have said that little case law would be available to guide judges if Congress were to take the administration to court over the issue. Asked about the matter on Wednesday, Trump once again said his tax returns were being audited by the IRS. "I would love to give them, but I'm not going to do it while I'm under audit. It's very simple," Trump told reporters. Story continues House tax committee Chairman Richard Neal last week requested six years of Trump's personal and business returns from the IRS, invoking a seldom-used law entitling him to make such a request. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview on CNBC television on Wednesday that it was appropriate for his agency to consult with the White House counsel on Neal's request. Mnuchin had said on Tuesday that Treasury Department lawyers had held "informational" discussions with the White House about an expected request for the returns, a step that Democrats criticized as uncalled for under the law. Democrats say a 1924 statute requires the Treasury secretary to turn over tax returns to the chairmen of the congressional tax committees who ask for them for investigative purposes. (Reporting by Steve Holland, Jason Lange, Tim Ahmann and Richard Cowan; additional reporting by Susan Heavey; writing by Meredith Mazzilli; editing by Bernadette Baum and Grant McCool) (Adds more South Korean comments) By Roberta Rampton and Soyoung Kim WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed a willingness to hold a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but said in talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that Washington would leave sanctions in place on Pyongyang. Trump and Moon, in the Oval Office, discussed the possibility of Moon having an inter-Korean summit with Kim soon as a way to boost dialogue between the United States and North Korea on denuclearization. North Korea, which has suspended nuclear tests and missile launches, has been pressing for sanctions relief but has not taken meaningful steps toward dismantling its nuclear weapons program. Trump and Kim have met twice, in Hanoi in February and Singapore last June, building good will but failing to agree on a deal to lift sanctions in exchange for North Korea abandoning its nuclear and missile programs. "It could happen. A third summit could happen. And its step by step. Its not a fast process. I've never said it would be. Its step by step," Trump said. Asked by reporters whether he was prepared to ease some sanctions on North Korea, Trump said he and Moon were discussing "certain humanitarian things" and the possibility of South Korea helping the North with food. He did not rule out participating in a three-way summit with both Kim and Moon. Of sanctions, he said, "We could always increase them, but I didn't want to do that at this time." Moon said he does not view the summit that collapsed in Hanoi as a failure, but part of a longer process. He said he agreed with Trump on the ultimate goal of total denuclearization by North Korea. "The important task that we face right now is to maintain the momentum of dialogue and also express the positive outlook regarding the third U.S.-North Korea summit to the international community, that this will be held in the near future," Moon said. Story continues A South Korean statement issued after the meeting, which included a working lunch, said Moon told Trump he will push to hold another summit soon with Kim. "The two presidents agreed that the top-down approach will continue to be indispensable in the peace process on the Korean peninsula. In this regard, President Trump stressed that the door was always open for dialogue with Chairman Kim," the statement said. A South Korean official said nothing has been decided about the timing and location of a next inter-Korean summit. Moon told Trump he will contact the North in earnest to talk about holding an inter-Korean summit soon, the official said. Trump asked Moon to brief him as early as possible on North Koreas latest thinking. Ahead of his trip, aides to Moon stressed the need to revive U.S.-North Korea talks. Moon has put his political reputation on the line in encouraging the negotiations. He has stressed the need to offer North Korea concessions, but Washington appears to have hardened its position against a phased approach sought by Pyongyang in which gradual steps would be rewarded with relief from punishing sanctions. Trump said he was open to a step-by-step approach but would need to see details. "There are various smaller deals that maybe could happen. Things could happen. You could work out, step by step, pieces. But at this moment, were talking about the big deal. The big deal is we have to get rid of the nuclear weapons," he said. On Thursday, North Korean state media said Kim had told a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Wednesday that he would push forward with efforts to make the economy more self sufficient "so as to deal a telling blow to the hostile forces who go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring (North Korea) to its knees." Last month, a senior North Korean official warned that Kim might rethink a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests in place since 2017 unless Washington makes concessions such as easing sanctions. On Wednesday, North Korea's state media said Kim had chaired a politburo meeting on Tuesday to discuss ways to make progress under the "prevailing tense situation." NECESSARY DETERRENT Kim and Moon met three times last year and Kim promised to visit South Korea in return for the South Korean leader's visit to Pyongyang in September. Analysts said a fourth Kim-Moon meeting could encourage another meeting between Kim and Trump. Moons top nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon said on Friday that sanctions were necessary to deter North Korea from making bad decisions but could not solve all unresolved problems. (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington and Joyce Lee, Josh Smith, and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Neil Fullick, James Dalgleish and David Gregorio) By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors announced charges on Thursday against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, accusing him of conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to gain access to a government computer as part of one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history. Assange, arrested by British police and carried out of Ecaudor's embassy in London, faces up to five years in prison on the American charge, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. His arrest paved the way for his possible extradition to the United States. Assange's indictment arose from a criminal investigation dating back to former President Barack Obama's administration. It was triggered in part by WikiLeaks' 2010 publication of hundreds of thousands of U.S. military reports about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and American diplomatic communications, a disclosure that embarrassed Washington and caused strained relations with allies. The Justice Department said Assange, 47, was arrested under an extradition treaty between the United States and Britain and was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The indictment, filed in March 2018 and unsealed on Thursday, said Assange in March 2010 engaged in a conspiracy to help Manning crack a password stored on Defense Department computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications. Manning had access to the computers as an intelligence analyst and was using them to download classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks, the Justice Department said. Cracking the password would have enabled Manning to log on under a username other than her own, making it harder for investigators to determine the source of the illegal disclosures, it said. Manning, formerly named Bradley Manning, was jailed on March 8 after being held in contempt by a judge in Virginia for refusing to testify before a grand jury in what is widely believed to be related to the Assange investigation. Story continues Manning was convicted by court-martial in 2013 of espionage and other offences for furnishing more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks while she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Obama commuted the final 28 years of Manning's 35-year sentence. "Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges," Barry Pollack, a lawyer for Assange, said in a statement, saying the allegations "boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source." A law enforcement official close to the case refused to discuss whether additional charges could be filed against Assange. Mark MacDougall, a former federal prosecutor, said on Thursday he believes the government's case against Assange looks like a "placeholder indictment." "They had to thoroughly investigate the Manning case," he said. "I think what you are seeing in this short indictment is a small sample of the fruit of that investigation." Representatives for Manning had no immediate comment. The indictment said Manning downloaded four massive U.S. government databases containing some 90,000 Afghanistan war reports, 400,000 Iraq war reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs and 250,000 State Department cables. U.S. officials said the leaks endangered the lives of American troops. SPECIAL COUNSEL INQUIRY Special Counsel Robert Mueller scrutinized the actions of WikiLeaks in his 22-month investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election. The website published emails damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that Mueller and U.S. intelligence agencies have said were stolen by Russia in a bid to boost Republican Donald Trump's candidacy. The Obama administration decided not to prosecute WikiLeaks and Assange on the grounds that the website's work was too similar to journalistic activities protected by the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of freedom of the press. The indictment quoted from a conversation in which Assange encouraged Manning to provide more information: Manning told Assange that "after this upload, that's all I really have got left," with Assange replying that "curious eyes never run dry in my experience." WikiLeaks has faced criticism from U.S. officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who when he was CIA director in 2017 called Assange a "fraud" and WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia." But Trump praised the website during the presidential campaign. At a rally shortly before the election, Trump said "I love WikiLeaks" after it released the hacked Democratic emails that harmed Clinton's candidacy. Assange, who took refuge in Ecuador's embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden in a sexual assault investigation, has said he did not know the source of Democratic Party-related emails WikiLeaks published before the election, but said he did not get them from Russia. (Reporting by Mark Hosenball and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, Nathan Layne in New York; writing by Will Dunham; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell) (Adds Senate Majority Leader McConnell) By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan LEESBURG, Va./WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - Democratic leaders in Congress said they will seek President Donald Trump's support in coming weeks for legislation to invest up to $2 trillion to rebuild U.S. infrastructure, including roads, bridges and schools. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said at separate news conferences that they would try to revive an effort that sputtered early in Trump's presidency for major investments in aging public works. Democrats have been seeking a much larger investment than Trump and fellow Republicans in Congress have suggested. "Has to be at least $1 trillion, I'd like it to be closer to $2 trillion," Pelosi, a Democrat, said to reporters at a House Democratic meeting in Leesburg, Virginia. She said there would be discussions on how such an amount could be financed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, later on Thursday told reporters that the financing issue was a major obstacle. "I'm all for taking it (infrastructure legislation) up once the president and Democrats, everybody says okay, here's how we're going to pay for it. As soon as that magically appears, I think we have a way forward," McConnell said. Schumer, speaking to reporters outside the U.S. Senate, said the three-way meeting would occur within the next several weeks. "The bottom line is this: If they're not going to put real money and have real labor and environmental protections, we're not going to get anywhere," Schumer warned. Past bipartisan efforts by Democrats and Trump have brought mixed results. A criminal justice bill was enacted, but an immigration reform effort was a dismal failure, as were border security talks. "The president calls people and says, 'Why don't we do something,' but then he's unwilling to really do anything beyond his hard-right base and nothing gets done," Schumer complained. Story continues But as Republicans and Democrats gear up for the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, they could be eager to show voters accomplishments. Last month, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao urged Congress to act promptly. Pelosi told The Associated Press in an interview on Thursday that she had a productive telephone conversation with Trump last week about infrastructure. She was dismissive of Trump's plan unveiled in February 2017 designed to encourage spending on improvements by states, localities and private investors. Trump had asked Congress to authorize $200 billion over 10 years to spur a projected $1.5 trillion in projects, but it had no new direct federal spending and never got a vote in Congress. "We have to put aside any negative attitudes. We are going there with a positive attitude: how much do you want to invest? How do we prioritize, because we want to do school construction, we want to do public housing, there are other things too," Pelosi said. (Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; editing by Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish) 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. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. 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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/ (Bloomberg) -- If you thought the past few weeks were a busy time for U.S. initial public offerings, just wait for the next wave of listings. Since the federal commission that oversees IPOs reopened after the partial U.S. government shutdown stymied activity at the start of the year, companies have rushed to join the public markets. Fifteen companies raised more than $5.5 billion in IPOs on U.S. exchanges in the past three weeks, more than three times the total raised by 22 companies in the first 11 weeks of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That amount is likely to be eclipsed several times over in the next month as high-profile tech startups including Uber Technologies Inc., Pinterest Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc. join the unicorns -- private companies valued at more than $1 billion -- dashing to market. Uber, which is seeking to raise about $10 billion, could publicly file its IPO documents as soon as Thursday, people familiar with the matter have said. Itll be the first chance for detail-hungry potential investors to look at hundreds of pages of in-depth information on the ride-sharing giants business plans. Add to that the $3 billion that other companies, including Pinterest and Zoom, are seeking to raise in the next 30 days, and its clear that the 2019 IPO tsunami is on its way. Levis, TradeWeb Levi Strauss & Co. started the IPO flood in March with its $623 million offering, followed closely by Uber rival Lyft Inc., which raised $2.34 billion. Bank-backed Tradeweb Markets Inc. topped $1 billion in its IPO on April 3, rounding out the trio of the years biggest listings worldwide -- so far -- as well as in the U.S. Not all of them are thriving. While Levi Strauss and Tradeweb are trading well above their IPO prices, Lyft has slipped in its two weeks as a public company. Shares closed at a record low of $60.12 on Wednesday, well below the $72 per share IPO price. Still, even Ubers listing, likely to start trading in May, could be only the leading edge of the surge to come. Others considering going public include Slack Technologies Inc., Postmates Inc., Palantir Technologies Inc. and Airbnb Inc. Story continues In Europe, where activity has been shaky, the drought is breaking. Three IPOs are set to price in April that could raise a total of more than $5.7 billion. Network International Holdings Ltd. surged in London trading Wednesday after raising 1.1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) in the biggest listing in Europe this year. Fellow payments firm Nexi SpA could raise as much as 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in an IPO expected to price on Thursday, while Stadler Rail AG is seeking as much as $1.4 billion this week. In total, as much as $80 billion could be raised in U.S. IPOs alone this year, double the yearly average since 1999, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicted in November - an estimate that may prove low. To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Fournier in New York at efournier5@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Fion Li For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. (Adds quotes, comments from Norway, Netherlands and Israel) BERLIN, April 10 (Reuters) - The British Ministry of Defence is in close touch with U.S. officials and monitoring the situation after Japan grounded its F-35A fighter jets following the crash of a Japanese F-35 in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, a ministry spokesperson said. Britain, which has 17 F-35B model jets that can take off and land vertically, has not grounded its fleet, but is monitoring the situation closely. "Safety is of the utmost importance and very closely managed on the F-35 programme. We will continue to review the situation as further information becomes available," the spokesperson said. UK officials are in close touch with the U.S. F-35 Joint Programme Office, but there was currently very little information available about the incident, the spokesperson said. Britain, which plans to buy a total of 138 F-35 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin, declared its fleet of F-35B fighter jets ready for initial combat operations from land in January. No comment was immediately available from the U.S. F-35 programme office about the accident or any move to follow Japan's lead in grounding the aircraft. Israel's military, which also operates F-35 jets, said there was no immediate impact on its F-35 operations. The Norwegian Air Force has not grounded its F-35 planes in the wake of the crash, said a spokeswoman. Oslo has taken delivery of nine of the 52 F-35s it expects to order from Lockheed, and expects to receive six more aircraft this year. The Dutch, who have ordered 10 F-35s, said they are not taking any measures. The Dutch planes are currently in Italy and the United States, with none actually present in the Netherlands. No comment was immediately available from Italy, which also operates the stealthy new warplane. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Berlin, Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam and Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; editing by Thomas Seythal) BERLIN, April 10 (Reuters) - The British Ministry of Defence is in close touch with U.S. officials and reviewing the status of its 17 F-35B fighter jets after the crash of a Japanese F-35 jet in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, a ministry spokesperson said. "Safety is of the utmost importance and very closely managed on the F-35 programme. We will continue to review the situation as further information becomes available," the spokesperson said. Britain, which plans to buy a total of 138 F-35 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin, declared its fleet of F-35B fighter jets ready for initial combat operations from land in January. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by Thomas Seythal) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 11, 2019) - Upco International Inc. (CSE: UPCO) (OTCQB: UCCPF) (FSE: U06) ("Upco") is pleased to announce that it has appointed Mr. Gert-Jan Geels as the Chief Financial Officer. Gert-Jan Geels has been a finance professional for 27 years. He was a private banker at Delta Lloyd Bank from 1996 to 1999. From 1999 to 2012 he was an asset manager at Eureffect Asset Management where he was the co-owner and managed one of the largest independent asset management companies in Amsterdam for over a decade. Mr Geels has extensive experience in financing small and medium sized companies and helping them restructure their balance sheet and improve their use of working capital. Mr Geels is the CEO of Bullfinch Ltd. where he advises wealthy individuals from The Netherlands and Belgium in their investment strategies. Mr. Geels also served as a compliance officer for one of the largest Dutch precious metal traders. Mr. Geels obtained his bachelor's degree in Banking and Finance from the Amsterdam Academy. Mr. Andrea Pagani, CEO and President of Upco, commented, "we are pleased to have Mr. Geels join our team. With Mr. Geels extensive experience in financial planning and risk management together with his proven leadership skills, will serve us well as we continue to grow and enhance our Company." About Upco International Inc. Upco International Inc. is a cloud-based mobile service company which provides high-quality voice termination to a market driven by the growing activity in online communications and commerce. Upco is a licensed Global Telecom Carrier within the international VoIP (voice over IP) wholesale business. Upco has designed a software application for Apple iOS and Android, similar to SKYPE and WhatsApp. With the forthcoming addition of the Upco e-Wallet using Blockchain Payment Services, users will be able to: send invoices, approve payments, transfer international funds, convert international currencies, and track transfers and payments. The application will also allow vendors to securely share account information with their clients. Story continues Please visit upcointernational.com or upcomobile.com for further information. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Andrea Pagani, CEO and Director office@upcointernational.com 212 461 3676 Trent Collet, Investor Relations 778 808 1175 Trent.collett@gmail.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/44033 Sample bottle of crude oil are seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/Files By Noah Browning LONDON (Reuters) - Global oil supply dropped in March as U.S. sanctions and power outages pushed Venezuela's crude output to a long-term low of 870,000 barrels per day (bpd), the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, even lower than OPEC reported the day before. "The blackouts are an additional challenge for Venezuela's oil sector, already set back by economic collapse, corruption, mismanagement and - more recently - by U.S. sanctions," the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly report. The IEA, which coordinates the energy policies of industrialised nations, said the output decline of 270,000 bpd was Venezuela's second largest month-on-month drop and put the country's production at 600,000 bpd less than a year earlier. Venezuela told the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that the nation pumped 960,000 bpd last month, a drop of almost 500,000 bpd from February, OPEC said on Wednesday. OPEC, Russia and other non-member oil producers agreed to cut output by 1.2 million bpd from Jan. 1 for six months and are set to meet on June 25-26 to decide whether to extend the pact. The IEA said the voluntary curbs of that deal and reduced output by Venezuela had caused OPEC production to fall 550,000 bpd in March. The IEA also maintained its forecast of growth in global oil demand for 2019 at 1.4 mln bpd. "Tightness in the oil market ... is not just a supply story. In recent months, the resilience of demand has received less attention," the IEA said. "Although it is still early days the major centres of oil demand growth are performing strongly. In China, the economy seems to be reacting to the governments stimulus measures," it said, also noting strong demand in India. Meanwhile, it said oil stocks in industrialised countries fell in February by 21.7 million barrels but remained above their five-year average. Global refining throughput fell by 2.5 million bpd in March on unplanned outages, especially in the United States. Story continues "Although the main sources of growth are doing well, there are mixed signals from elsewhere," the IEA wrote. "Concerns about trade talks linger, and the mood will be influenced by the recent downgrade to global GDP growth by the International Monetary Fund, although it should be noted that the IMF does not expect a recession in the near term." The United States and China have yet to find a solution to their dispute on trade, while the IMF on Tuesday cut its global economic growth forecasts. (Reporting by Noah Browning; Editing by Dale Hudson) NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / April 11, 2019 / Traders News Source, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on small and mid-cap public companies is issuing a comprehensive report on Wayland Group Corp. (MRRCF), a vertically integrated cultivator and processor of cannabis. The Company was founded in 2013 and is based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada and Munich, Germany, with production facilities in Langton, Ontario where it operates a cannabis cultivation, extraction, formulation, and distribution business under federal licenses from the Government of Canada. Traders News Source has created a comprehensive report on the current state of the cannabis market, including an outlook on where the industry may be headed in 2019. Our report discussed the drivers behind the explosive industry growth and the legal issues and hurdles to come in the near term. This report is a must read for investors in cannabis stocks. Read our comprehensive report on the cannabis/hemp industry here READ MORE Copy and paste to your browser may be required to view the report - https://tradersnewssource.com/wayland-group/ In March, MRRCF reaffirmed its intent to enter a combination agreement. Both International Cannabis and Wayland are nearing the conclusion of their strategic reviews and expect to enter into a Definitive Agreement. Upon closing of the transaction, Wayland's international assets and licenses will be transferred to a subsidiary owned by Wayland and International Cannabis; 50.1% and 49.9% respectively. The International Subsidiary will include key management, pharmaceutical professionals and operations personnel from Wayland. Read our comprehensive report on the cannabis/hemp industry here READ MORE Copy and paste to your browser may be required to view the report - https://tradersnewssource.com/wayland-group/ This document is not intended as an offering, recommendation, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities mentioned or discussed and is to be used for informational purposes only. Please read all associated disclosures and disclaimers in full before investing. Neither TNS nor any party affiliated with us is a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer with any agency or in any jurisdiction whatsoever. To download our report(s), read our disclosures, or for more information, visit https://www.tradersnewssource.com. Story continues CFA and Chartered Financial Analyst are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute. CONTACT: editor@tradersnewssource.com SOURCE: Traders News Source View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/541567/Wayland-Group-is-Expanding-Questions-Catalysts-and-Hurdles-Every-Marijuana-Stock-Investor-Should-be-Considering Welcome toMoney Diaries , where we're tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We're asking millennials how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period and we're tracking every last dollar. Calling all entrepreneurs: We want to hear from you! If youre a freelancer or self-employed, wed love to feature your Money Diary. Submit here. Travel Diaries: We're looking to get the inside scoop on when, where, and how our peers are using their vacation days. Open to tracking your travel expenses during an upcoming trip? Email us at traveldiary@refinery29.com. Today: a software developer working in IT who makes $108,000 per year and spends some of her money this week on iced coffee. Occupation: Software Developer Industry: IT Age: 28 Location: It varies. During the time of this diary, I was in Japan and New Zealand. Salary: $108,000 Paycheck Amount (Monthly): $9,000 (gross) Monthly Expenses Housing: It varies. During the month of this diary, I spent about $2,055 on housing. Next month I'll be in Eastern Europe, where I'll be spending about $800. Spotify: $9.99 Netflix: $12.99 Phone: It varies, but usually around $10. Retirement Savings: $50 (I contribute the minimum to my government's retirement savings plan, so that I can get a tax credit. If I were a domestic employee, my employer would arrange this for me, but since I'm not, I have to do this myself.) Investments: I put between $1,000 and $3,500 in a growth index fund every month, which is my main form of saving. I also have a savings account with a healthy emergency fund in it, but I don't currently contribute new money to that. Money Set Aside For Taxes: $3,000 (I pay my taxes in my home country, New Zealand, at intervals throughout the year. I set aside money out of my paycheck for this.) Day One 5 a.m. Wake up and blearily check my emails to see if my coworkers have reviewed my code from yesterday. They have signed off on about half of what I submitted, so that's good. Today is my last day in Japan, where I've been for the past three months. My flight out is at 10 p.m., so I'm annoyed to be awake so early, but at least this will get me used to my next time zone. I'm heading home to New Zealand for the first time in a year to renew my passport, get a new visa for the country I want to base myself in next, and see friends and family. Shockingly, my belongings have not spontaneously packed themselves overnight. My Airbnb host has not told me what time I need to check out, so I'm going to assume 10 a.m. I reluctantly get up and enjoy what will be my last shower for quite a while. Story continues 6:30 a.m. Apply skin care. I've been sampling Japanese skin care while I've been here, and the other day I stocked up on my favorite products. I resume packing my stuff while listening to my audiobook. Packing finished, I give the room one last sweep before heading out. I had planned to wait in my room until after rush hour, then take the subway to the central train station, but I want to leave now and get a coffee at my favorite place. I remember that Tokyo has Uber, and I hail one. It's expensive here, but I'm not brave enough to get a regular taxi because my Japanese sucks. $21 8 a.m. At the train station, I drop off my luggage to be sent to the airport. I was going to have to pay for it to be stored during the day anyway, so I figure I might as well send it onward rather than lugging it around. Sadly, the service is more expensive than I anticipated last month, I sent my bags a much larger distance for half the price! $44 8:15 a.m. Coffee! Finally. I go to my favorite cafe in Shinjuku ($7). While I drink my coffee, I write my morning pages three pages written longhand, usually just about whatever's on my mind. I keep getting distracted today, though, because there's drama happening online in a community that I'm a part of. I try not to get involved, but I have specific experience with the matter that's being debated and I have opinions. Sigh. I finish my coffee and wander to my favorite coworking spot just down the road from the cafe and get stuck in some work. I deploy my code that was signed off yesterday, review my coworkers' code, and fix a bug. The airline emails me I've been upgraded to Premium Economy. Yay! I often upgrade flights if I'm flying for more than 12 hours. My flight time tonight is around 13 hours but with a stopover in Sydney, so I decided against paying for an upgrade. Lucky me, I got one anyway. $7 11:30 a.m. My stomach is rumbling loudly, so I decide to have an early lunch. I walk down the road and get a burger. I know, I know. I swear I've eaten plenty of Japanese food over the past three months, though. $7 12 p.m. I head back to the coworking space. Some of the other floors in the building are actually more like co-living spaces. They're decked out like your friend's fancy parents' lounge. I pay for five hours on the women's-only floor and expense it. Later in the afternoon, I try to nap. I've got a long flight tonight, and I don't sleep on planes usually. The space I'm in has comfy booths for napping, with blankets and pillows. I listen to my audiobook and doze. I'm not good at sleeping during the day. I'm not good at sleeping generally. ($35 expensed) 3:30 p.m. I get up and refresh myself. The floor has a powder room with free skin-care products, so I indulge in that. I brush my teeth and hair and feel a bit more human. At 5, I head to the airport. I catch a train and then the monorail, which are covered by my train pass. I'm glad I don't have to deal with my luggage, since the trains are completely packed. When I get to the airport, I pick up my luggage and check in for my flight. 6 p.m. Dinner at a random airport cafe. I get a Caesar salad, some fries, and a mango smoothie, which are all very average. I try to use up some random coins but end up using the last of my notes. $15 7 p.m. I go through security, which is super chill compared to many Western airports. I don't have to remove anything from my bag not even liquids. I get my tax-free shopping signed off by an official, then wander around for a bit. I pop into Uniqlo, thinking I can spend my last 500 yen on a pair of undies, but sadly I'm 20 yen short! I drop my change in a collection bucket for Unicef instead. $5 9:20 p.m. Board my flight. Daily Total: $99 Day Two 9:30 a.m. Sydney time. My flight was fine. The food was good, and I managed to doze for most of it. I think I even got a bit of actual sleep! I was seated by a bulkhead, so I had a little extra room, too. For once, going through the transit gate in Sydney is a breeze. I'm still salty about the time I missed a connection because I was stuck in transit in Sydney, so I'll have to update my views and be nicer about this airport. I get an iced coffee at a cafe and check in with work and a couple of friends. $5 10:20 a.m. I decide to top up my New Zealand SIM card so that I can use it straight after I land in NZ. I get a package with a lot of data, because I plan on working in cafes a lot while I'm in town and most cafes don't offer free Wi-Fi. $30 12:15 p.m. I board my next flight. Due to some confusion and mix-ups in seating, I get moved a couple of times. The middle-aged man next to me invades my space. I watch The Favourite. It's not for me...I thought there were a lot of odd choices in cinematography and dialogue. It's like they were trying to be a little anachronistic, but they didn't lean all the way into it like Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. 5:30 p.m. I'm home for the first time in a year! Pick up my rental car, which takes ages and turns out to be more expensive than what I was quoted. I won't use this company again. $300 7 p.m. I drive 90 minutes north to my Nanna's house. I'm staying with her for a few days while I go to a conference. My cat is here! She comes to cuddle me. I'm so happy I haven't seen her in a year! I heat up some dinner and relax for a while. 10:30 p.m. Bedtime! I don't manage to fall asleep for several hours, though. I just doze to my audiobook. Daily Total: $335 Day Three 9 a.m. Jet lag sucks. I get up and shower and dress. A little later in the morning, my mum arrives. She lives another hour or so north of Nanna's, so she's come down for brunch. We talk for a while and then head out to eat. Our relationship is...not good, but we make it through the meal together. Mum pays this time. 1 p.m. Mum brought a few packages of mine that I had delivered to her house. New headphones and some summer sandals, which turn out to be the wrong size (though the box has the correct size label). I arrange to return them on Monday. I work a little on a presentation I'm giving at the conference. 3 p.m. Head to the conference venue, which is not far from Nanna's. I'm excited. I've been wanting to go to this for years, but it's strictly invite-only and I've never been cool enough for an invite before. I know at least 10 people going, so at least I'll definitely have some friends. I register and then grab a beer and chat with fellow attendees. 6:30 p.m. Dinnertime! I've already had some fantastic discussions. Everyone here is smart, welcoming, empathetic, and interesting. I love it. After dinner, we gather in the main hall to propose session topics and vote on which ones will make it into the final program. 10 p.m. Chats and beers! I have some awesome discussions. My heart and brain are so full. Just after midnight I head home, absolutely buzzing. I don't get to sleep for a long time. Daily Total: $0 Day Four 8:30 a.m. Jet lag still sucks. I make coffee and put it in my to-go cup, then head back to the conference. I have a busy morning full of interesting discussions. There are politicians and public servants in attendance, as well as technologists, educators, archivists, activists, and journalists. 1 p.m. It's lunchtime and the food is delicious. I talk with people around my table, then excuse myself to work a little more on my presentation. When I speak at conferences, I'm usually a lot more prepared, but since this is a short talk, I'm feeling fairly okay to wing it. I need to format some slides, though, and send them through to the organizer. 2:30 p.m. I attend afternoon sessions, and it's mostly a blur! I'm glad I bought that Japanese sunscreen. The New Zealand sun is very strong due to our crappy ozone hole, and it's summer. I'm also glad to be back in a place where bare feet are totally acceptable in almost all situations. I haven't worn shoes since I got here. 6:30 p.m. It's dinnertime, and I somehow pick the right table and end up in a great discussion with a member of Parliament and some interesting visitors from overseas. We talk New Zealand politics and try and explain our system to the visitors. We have elections coming up in 2020, so the member of Parliament talks a bit about campaign strategy. 8 p.m. It's time for presentations. I'm up, and it goes really well. Afterward, people disperse into different activities. I go to a room where people are playing a game of Dueling DJs. No DJ skills required! Two people face off and are given a prompt, like one-hit wonders or songs about the moon, and must choose a song based on that theme. The songs play and the crowd decides on the favorites. It's a lot of fun! I hang out with my friends and enjoy some ridiculous tunes. I head home just after midnight and try to put my buzzing brain to rest. Daily Total: $0 Day Five 9 a.m. Sooo tired. I miss most of the first session of the day. I make a coffee and head to the venue. I manage to catch the tail end of the session, but I am feeling completely knackered. 12 p.m. I attend my favorite session of the day, where I get to talk to some developers of an emerging technology. 1 p.m. We have lunch, then wrap up the conference. It was such an amazing time, I feel like I need several months to process all the thoughts and discussions I had over the weekend. I made some friends and contacts, I was surprised by some things, and I have a lot to think about. For now, though, I head back to Nanna's to spend a lazy afternoon cuddling my cat. 4 p.m. I spend some time with Nanna, fixing her computer and helping her with a few things. I type up some of her committee meeting notes and help her email them out. While I'm doing that, Nanna goes out to pick up some Chinese takeout for dinner. We eat dinner while watching the news. Ahhh, terrestrial TV, what a strange thing. 8 p.m. I practice my German for a while. I lived in Germany last year, and I want to continue with my German study because I'm heading back to Europe next month. I have some proficiency in German, Spanish, and French, and I'd like to continue to improve at all three. I go to bed at 9:30, completely exhausted. Daily Total: $0 Day Six 7:30 a.m. Yay, I'm starting to wake up at a more reasonable hour! I'm excited because I'm flying home to Wellington this afternoon. I shower, dress, make a coffee, and drink it while packing my things. Weirdly, my bag seems heavier and more unwieldy this time around, though I have the same amount of stuff. 10 a.m. I help Nanna with her computer again, and then Mum arrives for brunch. We go to a nearby cafe. I have avocado on toast with a side salad, but the meal tastes weird. I also have a ginger beer. Mum and Nanna each get a quiche and a coffee. I pay for everyone. $30 12 p.m. I've had enough of dealing with my family, so I decide to head out early. I've been evasive about what time my flight leaves. I take the scenic route and visit some old haunts from when I was a teenager to see what's changed. Moving away from this city nine years ago was definitely a good decision for me. I stop in at a mall and buy some summer shoes to wear while I'm here. Half of my possessions are at a friend's house in Europe, but I mostly packed for winter when I left for Japan. It's a bit strange to be carrying around thermals and boots in the New Zealand summer, but here we are. $50 2 p.m. I'm busting to pee and hungry as well, so I stop in at a KFC on the way to the airport. I get a meal and eat it in my car while listening to my audiobook. $7 3 p.m. I need to return the shoes that didn't fit. They came from Sweden, and the shipping company has a branch near the airport. Technically, I'm returning the shoes outside of the designated return window, because I ordered them earlier in the year and they were just sitting unopened at my mum's house. I drop off the shoes, then I send an email to the team explaining why I'm returning them outside the return time window and hope that they'll help me. The shipping is prepaid (thanks, Swedish Hasbeens, for making life easy). 3:30 p.m. I fill the gas tank of my rental car. Then I drop it off and take the shuttle to the airport. I'm early, but I don't mind. I practice German and mess around on the internet. I try to read my book, but I'm finding it really hard to focus at the moment. Jet lag, plus the conference and my excitement to go home have all turned my brain upside down. $35 5:30 p.m. I board my flight. On this flight they serve wine, crackers, and cheese, and I am so ready for it. It's a peaceful one-hour flight with nice views down onto my homeland. When we land, I collect my bag and then order an Uber. I'm staying with a friend and his house isn't on the bus route, so this is the easiest option. $12 7 p.m. I give my friend a huge hug, and he serves me some dinner that he's made. After we eat, he puts his three-year-old to bed and we hang out and catch up. It's so awesome to see him and so good to be home. I go to bed at 10, already dreaming about my first Wellington coffee in the morning. Daily Total: $134 Day Seven 7 a.m. Wake up, feeling okay. I have the day off work today, but my boss needs to talk and it sounds kinda serious. I'm nervous. He's not online yet, so I get up, shower, and go out to get a coffee. I walk down the road to my favorite coffee place. My city is famous for its coffee, and I have missed it immensely. $4 9 a.m. Boss is online and we video chat. I am being made redundant! My boss makes it clear that it's not related to performance or anything about me it's about the direction he's decided to take the business in, which requires less developer resource. Two of us are being let go. In all honesty, I understand. It's a bit of a surprise, but I have a job until the end of the month and then three months severance pay, so I'm not panicked. I'm actually excited to start looking for new work. The technical work for this job recently has felt quite rote. At my previous job, I handled a lot of hard and interesting technical challenges, and I want to look for that sort of work again. 10 a.m. Okay, I am reeling somewhat. I'm meeting a friend for lunch a bit later, so I decide to go into town a bit early. I'm getting antsy sitting around the house. I fish out my old bus pass and hope it still has money on it. It does! I catch the bus and immediately run into an old flatmate of mine. This is what we call a Wellington moment. We catch up. 10:20 a.m. Get my passport photo taken at a pharmacy. It's ugly, but that's life with passports. A big part of the reason I'm home is to get a new passport and apply for a new visa. You can take passport photos on your own camera for free, but you risk having your photo rejected because you've done something wrong. I don't have time for my passport application to be rejected and resubmitted, so I get a pro to take the photo. $18 10:40 a.m. Head to the cafe where I'm meeting my friend and have another coffee. This is a mistake. A year away from Wellington and I've forgotten just how strong we make them here and how much my tolerance has gone down. I have the shakes. I'm brainstorming ideas for what I want to do. I can live off my savings for two years if I absolutely have to, which is an extremely comforting thought. I do marvel at that immense privilege, so much. I don't come from an affluent background, so the idea of not living paycheck-to-paycheck is still new to me. I know I'll have offers as soon as I put word out that I'm looking for a job, so I'm more concerned about finding the right position. I feel like a conceited asshole saying that, but the reality is that although it's hard for juniors to get jobs, once you're an experienced developer, you become sought after. $3 12 p.m. My friend arrives and we order some lunch. I get the day's special, which is an open beef sandwich with salad. So delicious! My friend is a game developer, and we talk about career switches in the IT industry. After lunch, I go to the public library and work on my CV/write copy for my personal website, which I'll need to update. $19 2:30 p.m. I drop by the supermarket and buy beers, micellar water, and plasters for the blister on my heel. My city is also famous for its beers, and I've been looking forward to having a few while I'm here. I catch the bus home. $28 3 p.m. Attempt to renew my passport online. I've completely forgotten some security information, and it's not in my password manager because I set up my online account seven years ago and haven't used it since. I phone the agency and get put on hold. While I'm on hold, I put away all the kids' toys in the living room. Finally, I get through to a human! The person on the phone is great and gets me all sorted out. I finish my online application. The fee only just increased last week, but I couldn't renew before the fee raise because I needed my passport to travel. $150 5 p.m. My friend arrives home and then leaves again to get his daughter from daycare. She has a playdate tonight, and while my friend is out, the kid and their parent arrive. I show them in and get the kid some water. My friend arrives home, and I get beers for the adults. The kids are fed snacks and the adults have intermittent conversation while toddler chaos ensues. The visiting kid's other parent offers to bring over dinner. Yay! She's Japanese, so she's made some delicious karaage. My friend cooks up some vegetables to accompany that. We have some more beers and chat. After dinner, the kid and their parents leave, and my friend puts his kid to bed. 9 p.m. My friend and I catch up on our days, and he commiserates with me about my job situation. I'm starting to feel sad about it, and he gives me a hug. We watch an episode of Silicon Valley before heading to bed. Daily Total: $222 Money Diaries are meant to reflect individual women's experiences and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29's point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior. The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend to try on your own, check out our guide to managing your money every day. For more money diaries, click here. Have questions about how to submit or our publishing process? Read our Money Diaries FAQ doc here: r29.co/mdfaqs Were working on a story that takes a look at what real people spend on weed and marijuana-derived products. 4/20 is right around the corner, and we want to know what real people think is a reasonable amount to spend each month. To be considered for an upcoming article please fill out this form! All answers are anonymous. Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here? I Have Two Master's Degrees & Make $53K As A Math Specialist In Education How Much Does Coachella Pay Its Headliners? The Best Memes To Post During The Game Of Thrones Premiere Value investing is always a very popular strategy, and for good reason. After all, who doesnt want to find stocks that have low PEs, solid outlooks, and decent dividends? Fortunately for investors looking for this combination, we have identified a strong candidate which may be an impressive value; China Life Insurance Company Limited LFC. China Life Insurance in Focus LFC may be an interesting play thanks to its forward PE of 16.6, its P/S ratio of 0.8, and its decent dividend yield of 1.9%. These factors suggest that China Life Insurance is a pretty good value pick, as investors have to pay a relatively low level for each dollar of earnings, and that LFC has decent revenue metrics to back up its earnings. China Life Insurance Company Limited PE Ratio (TTM) China Life Insurance Company Limited PE Ratio (TTM) | China Life Insurance Company Limited Quote But before you think that China Life Insurance is just a pure value play, it is important to note that it has been seeing solid activity on the earnings estimate front as well. For current year earnings, the consensus has gone up by 31.3% in the past 30 days, thanks to one upward revision in the past one month compared to none lower. This estimate strength is actually enough to push LFC to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), suggesting it is poised to outperform. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. So really, China Life Insurance is looking great from a number of angles thanks to its PE below 20, a P/S ratio below one, and a strong Zacks Rank, meaning that this company could be a great choice for value investors at this time. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year? Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. See Latest Stocks Today >> 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 China Life Insurance Company Limited (LFC) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Steven Ralston, CFA TSX:WML.V | OTC:WMLLF READ THE FULL WML.V RESEARCH REPORT Wealth Minerals (WML.V) (WMLLF) is a junior mineral exploration company that is well-positioned to benefit from its portfolio of prospective lithium projects in the Lithium Triangle. The company holds control over portions of several lithium salar projects in northern Chile (Atacama, Trinity and others). Management intends to advance its concessions through exploration programs and opportunistically acquire additional ones. The Agreement with ENAMI creates a path for the development of Wealths Atacama Project. The Lithium Triangle appears to be the global sweet spot for low-cost incremental supply of lithium. View Exhibit I Corporate Update In a conference call, management of Wealth Minerals provided an update. Most of the call centered on the prospects and development of the companys Atacama Lithium Project: The drilling program continues to be delayed pending a good outcome in addressing the concerns of the indigenous people. The company wants to operate as a good corporate citizen, and management is confident that the situation will be resolved, though no time frame was proffered. Given the stratigraphy, the high grade and the quality (low level of magnesium) of the Atacama Salar in general, management is very optimist about the prospects of its Tier I-sized anomaly in the northern part of the salar. The company is in the final stages of negotiations with ENAMI (Mineria aka National Mining Company of Chile) towards setting the terms for the joint venture that will move forward in developing the companys Atacama Project. Around March 31, 2019, Wealth Minerals completed a US$2 million option payment. As a result, the company exercised the Option to Purchase Agreement and registered its subsidiary (Wealth Minerals Chile SpA) as the direct title holder of the Atacama Project, a precondition for being able to finalize negotiations with ENAMI. View Exhibit II Management also addressed the companys financing needs. Wealth Minerals has secured many prospective lithium properties through Option Agreements, some of which require the adherence to payment schedules in order to keep the agreements in good standing. The company needs quarterly financings to fund these option payment and ongoing operations. With the lithium industry under pricing pressure since last summer, has pursued financings that minimize shareholder dilution, including two loan packages. The company also briefly discussed its Vanadium Project and copper spin-out as opportunities that arose from a constant exposure to deal flow. Lithium Asset Portfolio Update Management continuous reviews the options on the mineral properties within companys lithium asset portfolio. At times, adjustments are made. In the corporate update on February 11, 2019, several changes were announced. Also, in the March 29, 2019 filings, it was noted that the company sold the 400-hectare Salar Property, which is located in the Salar de Aguas Calientes Norte and was part of the Trinity Project. Three new properties (Flamenco, Vapor and Harry) entered the portfolio while two projects were relinquished (Laguna Verde and Five Salars). The land package associated with the Laguna Verde Project (namely the Salar Green & Union concessions) is being retained and remains in good standing. The changes were implemented primarily to conserve cash by eliminating the need for additional option payments on those options being relinquished. The development of the Atacama and Trinity projects remains the main focus of management. View Exhibit III Option Agreement for 100% of Meductic Vanadium Properties (New Brunswick, Canada) On November 28, 2018, Wealth Minerals entered into a formal option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the Meductic Vanadium Properties, which are located in New Brunswick, Canada. Vanadium redox flow batteries are addressing the large -scale energy storage segment in the electric power industry, particularly for utility-scale, industrial and EV applications. According to Adroit Market Research, the vanadium redox flow battery market is expected to grow from US$ 4.43 on 2017 to US$1.11 billion by 2025. The acquisition of the option increases the companys exposure to metals critical to new renewable battery technologies. Wealth Minerals has made the initial $20,000 cash payment and has issued 150,000 common shares, per the payment schedule of the Option Agreement (see below). View Exhibit IV The properties are subject to a 2% NSR royalty, half of which Wealth Minerals may purchase at any time upon the payment of $1,000,000. The Meductic Vanadium Properties are comprised of the Wickham 1, Bright Eye Brook 1, 2 and 3, and Meductic 3, 4 and 5 mineral tenures. The total area of the properties is approximately 1,749 hectares and covers the known areas of vanadium outcrops. View Exhibit V TEM Geophysical Survey Results on Vapor Project In late February 2019, Wealth Minerals reported the receipt of positive geophysical survey results conducted on and around the Vapor Project. TEM (Transient Electromagnetic) surveys, which were completed by Southernrock Geophysics S.A., have identified highly conductive zones down to at least 500 meters below surface. These extremely low resistivity signals have been interpreted to represent porous media with high-salinity fluids, which potentially could be lithium-bearing brines. Multiple anomalies were identified, and the high-priority drill targets have been identified. View Exhibit VI The diagrams above indicate the companys Vapor Property (blue lines), the TEM survey line locations (red lines) and 1D inversion model resistivity of the best section of the TEM survey, line 4. Brief Lithium Industry Review After the steep run-up during the first half of 2016, spot lithium product pricing (battery-grade 99.5% lithium carbonate Li2CO3) corrected slightly and dipped below $20,000 during the first quarter of 2017 despite continued demand for lithium concentrate and lithium carbonate. However, spot pricing began to firm and strengthened during the third quarter of 2017 after Xin Guobin, Chinas Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, announced at an auto forum in Tianjin on September 9th that Chinese regulators are working on a timetable to phase out the production and sales of fossil fuel vehicles. Spot prices rallied to over $25,000 during the third quarter of 2017. Since early 2018, spot pricing has been under considerable pressure, beginning after a contract was announced between SQM (Sociedad Quimica y Minera) and CORFO (Corporacion de Fomento de la Produccion - Chiles governmental agency for the promotion of production) in mid-January, which allows SQM to produce up to 216,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate annually through 2025, which raised concerns about a potential oversupply situation. Subsequently, a Morgan Stanley report forecasted that an oversupply of lithium would occur starting in 2019. In the second quarter, LCE prices began to decline sharply, pressuring all lithium stocks, including producers and juniors. Since October 2018, the price of lithium carbonate has stabilized around the $12,000 per tonne level. View Exhibit VII During 2018, the Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF declined 30.4%. However, at the same time, the future demand for lithium appears robust with many industrial companies, particularly EV manufacturers, announcing their anticipated need for lithium for use in battery applications. We believe that the demand for lithium will surpass the available supply in the next few years. Historically, supply projections have been overestimated due to the inability of lithium producers to ramp up production of battery-grade lithium in a timely fashion. In the near future, the Lithium Triangle is poised to become even more dominate as the major source of lithium in the world not only due to the vast identified lithium resources in the region, but also because brine production more cost-competitive relative to hard-rock and clay sources of lithium. With the tipping point toward higher lithium prices on the horizon and with brine deposits poised to be a major contributor to low-cost incremental supply, lithium exploration & development companies of the Lithium Triangle, with their blue sky potential, appear to be well positioned to benefit from higher lithium prices. Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wealth Minerals Ltd is a junior exploration company that is building a portfolio of highly prospective lithium-brine mineral concessions located within the Lithium Triangle, currently targeting properties within salars situated in Chile. However, managements scope for potential lithium-in-water and brine candidates extends beyond the region in the search for prospective mineral properties. Not only has management positioned the company to benefit from the upcoming expected growth of demand in the lithium space, but also continues to seek the acquisition of additional interests in prospective concessions. The company continues to constantly review and evaluate a number of properties in the region and then aggressively pursues control of the attractive ones that would complement the current portfolio of concessions. SUBSCRIBE TO ZACKS SMALL CAP RESEARCH to receive our articles and reports emailed directly to you each morning. Please visit our website for additional information on Zacks SCR. DISCLOSURE: Zacks SCR has received compensation from the issuer directly or from an investor relations consulting firm, engaged by the issuer, for providing research coverage for a period of no less than one year. Research articles, as seen here, are part of the service Zacks provides and Zacks receives quarterly payments totaling a maximum fee of $30,000 annually for these services. Full Disclaimer HERE. Story continues Global Payments (GPN) Q1 earnings likely to benefit from higher revenues, partly offset by rise in expenses. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL April 11, 2019 Zacks Market Edge is a podcast hosted weekly by cks Stock Strategist Tracey Ryniec. Every week, Tracey will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life. To listen to the podcast, click here: (Please use the Soundcloud link from this URL for the PR. Thanks: https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/377815/stocks-to-combat-recession-worries) Stocks to Combat Recession Worries Welcome to Episode #172 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast. Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life. In this episode, Tracey is joined by Zacks Chief Equity Strategist, John Blank, to talk about their favorite topic: is the US economy in a recession? And if so, how do you invest for it? Tracey and John first covered this subject all the way back in Episode #20 of the podcast, in February 2016, which was titled Why There Wont Be a Recession in 2016. And, actually, there wasnt. Signs of a Recession But its worth looking, again, at what is one of the most important indicators of a recession: employment. For the week ending March 30, the jobless claims fell 10,000 to 202,000, which was back to a 49-year low. The March employment report also showed unemployment unchanged at 3.8%. Additionally, Bank of America announced that it was raising its minimum wage to $17, with it rising to $20 an hour, by 2021. Thats a sign that the job market remains tight. Companies dont raise wages to be nice. Conclusion? The United States isnt in a recession. So why is everyone so nervous about one? Stocks for a Recession It doesnt hurt for investors to be prepared as a recession is, ultimately, inevitable. 1. United Technologies UTX is planning on splitting into three companies by 2020 with Otis and Carrier being separated during that time. In the meantime, the shares are underperforming the S&P 500 and a have a forward P/E of 16.9. Story continues 2. Norfolk Southern NSC is busting out to 5-year highs but earnings are expected to be up 9.3% in 2019 and another 14.7% in 2020 for this railroad. The rails may be old school but investors have been cashing in. 3. Arista Networks ANET which provides software driven cloud networking, has been a big momentum stock in 2019. Shares are up 51% year-to-date. Its not cheap, with a forward P/E of 34, but youre buying the growth story. 4. Fortescue Metals Group FSUGY is an Australian iron ore company. Its trading at just 11.6x earnings even though shares have soared 96% year-to-date. As Chinas growth ramps back up, the Australian commodity plays should benefit. 5. Shin-Etsu Chemical SHECY is the 9th largest chemical company in Japan. One of its specialties is chip chemicals. Shares are up 21% year-to-date. What else should you know about investing for a possible recession? Tune into this weeks podcast to find out. Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. Theyre also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases. Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +98%, +119% and +164% in as little as 1 month. The stocks in this report could perform even better. See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>> Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com/performance Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. 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 Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) : Free Stock Analysis Report Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. (SHECY) : Free Stock Analysis Report United Technologies Corporation (UTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (FSUGY) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research FAYZABAD, Afghanistan In a sign of impending hard times for Afghan media outlets, a lack of resources has forced a female-led radio station in a remote Afghan town to close. Radio Bazgul bid farewell to its listeners in Fayzabad this month. Some 30,000 residents of this picturesque capital of northeastern Badakhshan Province will no longer be able to listen to the FM station whose voice permeated shops, offices, and homes. Local resident Ahmad Suhaib was a regular listener. He liked the news, music, political, social, and cultural talk shows that Bazgul offered. I was saddened to know that this station will be shut, he told Radio Free Afghanistan. Mahshid, one of the radios female fans who goes by one name only, is also unhappy over its closure. I am very upset because I was a fan of this station and followed its programs, she said. Zakia Zhadat, the editor-in chief of the station, says a lack of support from the local government, donors, and nongovernmental organizations compelled Radio Bazgul to shut down. Now the six women and two men who worked here will no longer have jobs, she told Radio Free Afghanistan. We failed to secure any assistance, which prompted us to shut our doors forever. Zhadat, a university graduate, worked at the station since its opening in 2013. Layla Tabish, another journalist at the station, says she is worried that more media outlets in Badakhshan are likely to meet the same fate. We were doing a good job, she said. Now if the government fails to rescue other media outlets, they will follow suit. The media in the region, however, is already in dire straits. Abdul Baseer Haqjoo, the head of Badakhshans journalists association, says 24 out of the 30 magazines and newspapers in the province have gone out of print. Lacking resources and marketing potential [for sales and advertisements] and an increase in taxes by the government have forced the media in Badakhshan to face a calamity, he told Radio Free Afghanistan. Unfortunately, government promises of help were never acted upon. But the cash-strapped Afghan government, embroiled in fighting a countrywide Taliban insurgency, has few resources to prop up independent media. No doubt that the demise of a media outlet directly translates into shutting down peoples voice, noted Hikmatuallah Mohammadi, a senior official at the Information and Culture Ministry. We are doing our best to help the media in accordance with our governments policy. He says the local branch of the ministry has crafted a plan to support the media in Badakhshan. The story of Afghan media in the 21st century has been one of boom and bust. Afghanistan had no independent media under the Taliban. But the demise of the Taliban regime in late 2001 was followed by the mushrooming of hundreds of print, television, radio, and online outlets. Western donors made generous investments to shore up the medias watchdog role. Eighteen years later, dwindling donor funding is forcing many outlets, particularly in remote provinces such as Badakhshan, to end operations. Badakhshan, one of the largest among Afghanistans 34 provinces, borders Tajikistan, China, and Pakistan. It currently has six newspapers, two radio stations, and three television stations to cater to its 900,000 residents. The government controls a print outlet while the state radio and television have local branches. Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on Naimatullah Ahmadis reporting from Fayzabad, Badakhshan. Yes, I found a better job Yes, but I'm still looking for a new job Yes, I retired Yes, I started my own business No, I like my current job No, but I'm currently looking for a new job Vote View Results Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 8 Vote(s) - 2.5 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 3 Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? BLAME TRUMP lop guest User ID: 453356 04-11-2019 08:05 PM Post: #1 Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? Advertisement Yet, her heritage and family background is in the OWNING of slaves in Jamaica. Not, not rumor but in a little noted book written by her FATHER. This was written by HER FATHER: Harris doesnt owe anyone in America, but does she have some mea culpas to make in Jamaica? Her father, Donald J. Harris, wrote an extensive essay about the familys heritage in Jamaica at Jamaican Global Online in January, claiming to be the descendant of a famed slave owner. My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (nee Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Browns Town) and to my maternal grandmother Miss Iris (nee Iris Finegan, farmer and educator, from Aenon Town and Inverness, ancestry unknown to me). The Harris name comes from my paternal grandfather Joseph Alexander Harris, land-owner and agricultural produce exporter (mostly pimento or all-spice), who died in 1939 one year after I was born and is buried in the church yard of the magnificent Anglican Church which Hamilton Brown built in Browns Town (and where, as a child, I learned the catechism, was baptized and confirmed, and served as an acolyte). Hamilton Brown was born in 1776 in Ireland. He became a sugar plantation owner and founder of Browns Town in Jamaica, according to university papers, textbooks, and historical documents. Henry Whiteley wrote a pamphlet entitled Three months in Jamaica in 1832, Comprising a Residence on a Sugar Plantation, where he describes Browns views on his slaves. Will she give reparations to the slaves owned by her family. My family did not come to this country until the 1880s after slavery was ended, by Lincoln, over the objections of the Democrats. Why should I or other who did not own slaves be forced to pay? In her case, her own Father admits the family was based on owning slaves. Pay up Kamala and stop forcing those of us who never owned slaves to pay for the abuse your family gave to black people. https://pjmedia.com/trending/kamala-harr...ons-check/ As we know, Sen. Kamala Harris is a real embarrassment to the people of California. Besides wanting higher taxes and more illegal aliens (the more the merrier), she wants to take away your freedom of choice for health care government or no health care are her choices for you. She believes that there should be reparations for slavery.Yet, her heritage and family background is in the OWNING of slaves in Jamaica. Not, not rumor but in a little noted book written by her FATHER. This was written by HER FATHER:Harris doesnt owe anyone in America, but does she have some mea culpas to make in Jamaica? Her father, Donald J. Harris, wrote an extensive essay about the familys heritage in Jamaica at Jamaican Global Online in January, claiming to be the descendant of a famed slave owner.My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (nee Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Browns Town) and to my maternal grandmother Miss Iris (nee Iris Finegan, farmer and educator, from Aenon Town and Inverness, ancestry unknown to me). The Harris name comes from my paternal grandfather Joseph Alexander Harris, land-owner and agricultural produce exporter (mostly pimento or all-spice), who died in 1939 one year after I was born and is buried in the church yard of the magnificent Anglican Church which Hamilton Brown built in Browns Town (and where, as a child, I learned the catechism, was baptized and confirmed, and served as an acolyte).Hamilton Brown was born in 1776 in Ireland. He became a sugar plantation owner and founder of Browns Town in Jamaica, according to university papers, textbooks, and historical documents. Henry Whiteley wrote a pamphlet entitled Three months in Jamaica in 1832, Comprising a Residence on a Sugar Plantation, where he describes Browns views on his slaves.Will she give reparations to the slaves owned by her family. My family did not come to this country until the 1880s after slavery was ended, by Lincoln, over the objections of the Democrats. Why should I or other who did not own slaves be forced to pay? In her case, her own Father admits the family was based on owning slaves. Pay up Kamala and stop forcing those of us who never owned slaves to pay for the abuse your family gave to black people. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 352770 04-11-2019 08:08 PM Post: #2 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? RIGHT BIAS These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Right Bias sources. Overall, we rate PJ Media to be borderline Questionable based on numerous failed fact checks, however they do fall just below the threshold and are therefore rated Right Biased and Mixed for factual reporting. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/pj-media/ ~*~ I'm already gone User ID: 496425 04-11-2019 08:51 PM Posts: 3,392 Post: #3 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? http://kpkollenborn.blogspot.com/2011/02...sated.html From Wrong To Right: A U.S. Apology For Japanese Internment https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/...nt-redress One difference is that Japanese internment was actually done by the government. Slavery was allowed by the government but the government didn't actually enslave people. The government, however, issued titles for slaves and enforced it. Reparations would probably be paid by the U.S. government from our general taxes whether our ancestors were involved in slavery or not.From Wrong To Right: A U.S. Apology For Japanese InternmentOne difference is that Japanese internment was actually done by the government. Slavery was allowed by the government but the government didn't actually enslave people. The government, however, issued titles for slaves and enforced it. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 481418 04-11-2019 09:19 PM Post: #4 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? The first legal slave onwer in the U.S. was a black man. Damnrod Pull my finger User ID: 196679 04-11-2019 09:23 PM Posts: 7,609 Post: #5 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? LunaBaby Wrote: (04-11-2019 08:51 PM) Reparations would probably be paid by the U.S. government from our general taxes whether our ancestors were involved in slavery or not. http://kpkollenborn.blogspot.com/2011/02...sated.html From Wrong To Right: A U.S. Apology For Japanese Internment https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/...nt-redress One difference is that Japanese internment was actually done by the government. Slavery was allowed by the government but the government didn't actually enslave people. The government, however, issued titles for slaves and enforced it. Reparations? I am of Irish descent on my mother's side you f**kers treated my ancestors poorly If money is going to be handed out I better get a f*cking check too Reparations?I am of Irish descent on my mother's sideyou f**kers treated my ancestors poorlyIf money is going to be handed outI better get a f*cking check too "I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery"...Thomas Jefferson "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it"...Thomas Jefferson LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 496988 04-11-2019 09:45 PM Post: #6 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 09:19 PM) The first legal slave onwer in the U.S. was a black man. true true LOP Kamala Expert lop guest User ID: 497142 04-11-2019 09:50 PM Post: #7 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? Maybe she could be a good example and give half her net worth to the first black family she sees. I bet she agrees but then adds that the black family has to have the father present. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 476719 04-11-2019 10:40 PM Post: #8 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/04/dona...ion-point/ Natura Naturans Registered User User ID: 506340 07-03-2019 03:47 PM Posts: 13,155 Post: #9 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? Willie Brown admits it: Kamala Harris slept her way to the top By Monica Showalter Kamala Harris, that vaunted self-righteous feminist candidate who's using her 'year of the woman' chops to challenge President Trump in 2020, has a little problem: She slept her way to the top. You know, the mistress thing, not exactly moving on up based on hard work or merit, that little advantage of good looks (President Obama called her the 'best-looking' state attorney general), employed to their optimal practical use. Her political patron, former lawyer to pimps, Mayor of San Francisco, and State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, admitted he helped her get her political start, writing in his bloggy San Francisco Chronicle column: Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker. And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/201...e_top.html January 27, 2019Willie Brown admits it:By Monica ShowalterKamala Harris, that vaunted self-righteous feminist candidate who's using her 'year of the woman' chops to challenge President Trump in 2020, has a little problem: She slept her way to the top.You know, the mistress thing, not exactly moving on up based on hard work or merit, that little advantage of good looks (President Obama called her the 'best-looking' state attorney general), employed to their optimal practical use. Her political patron, former lawyer to pimps, Mayor of San Francisco, and State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, admitted he helped her get her political start, writing in his bloggy San Francisco Chronicle column:Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza eclipsed Registered User User ID: 506373 07-03-2019 03:52 PM Posts: 2,290 Post: #10 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? PioneerSpirit Registered User User ID: 503107 07-03-2019 04:05 PM Posts: 15,196 Post: #11 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? Hopefully NO ONE will be paying so called 'reparations'. Slavery in the USA ended 150 years ago. A great many families lost loved ones/ancestors fighting AGAINST slavery. My family didn't own slaves, and yet I had ancestors die fighting against it. Others living here now didn't have any ancestors here during slavery. The vast majority of Americans didn't own slaves. Most of the slave owners went broke during the Civil War. There is ZERO reason to write a check to someone because they have black skin. NONE. Considering immigration - deciding who has slave ancestors and who doesn't would be a ridiculous endeavor as a matter of cost. America already spends a great deal of money on helping the poor in this country - no matter their race or creed or background. There are programs in place to help people out of difficult situations and to improve life. Programs can be improved ... if any money is to be used it should be for program improvement for everyone... not just big checks to people based on their skin color. Also, people in difficult situations need to take self responsibility and make good decisions. Life isn't fair. Period. Bad self decisions can make a difficult situation worse. That goes for people of ANY skin color. "They notice that you notice" - Mothman Prophecies A tradition cannot make an historical claim and then refuse to have it evaluated by history PioneerSpirit Registered User User ID: 503107 07-03-2019 04:08 PM Posts: 15,196 Post: #12 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? Damnrod Wrote: (04-11-2019 09:23 PM) I am of Irish descent on my mother's side you f**kers treated my ancestors poorly Same here .. on my fathers side. Indentured ancestors. Indentured Irish were better dressed than the black slaves, but were pretty much slaves none the less. Frequently raped. "Contracts" extended on the whim of the contract holder. Mistreatment. Beatings. No freedoms whatsoever. Families separated. No rights. The list goes on and on ... Same here .. on my fathers side. Indentured ancestors. Indentured Irish were better dressed than the black slaves, but were pretty much slaves none the less. Frequently raped. "Contracts" extended on the whim of the contract holder. Mistreatment. Beatings. No freedoms whatsoever. Families separated. No rights. The list goes on and on ... "They notice that you notice" - Mothman Prophecies A tradition cannot make an historical claim and then refuse to have it evaluated by history LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 506367 07-03-2019 04:25 PM Post: #13 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? LoP Guest Wrote: (04-11-2019 09:19 PM) The first legal slave onwer in the U.S. was a black man. The first illegal slave owner was jewish. The first illegal slave owner was jewish. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464844 07-03-2019 04:38 PM Post: #14 RE: Will Kamala Harris Pay Reparations for HER Slave Owning Heritage? This reparations thing is just another device used to create political upheaval. Problem